Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammed Ali Pate said yesterday that only 15.06 per cent of the total capital allocation to the sector in 2024 was released to the ministry for capital projects.
The minister said the delay in the release and cash backing of its capital allocation was due to the bottom-up cash plan policy of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
Speaking at the 2025 budgetary allocation to the ministry’s defence before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Health. –
Prof. Pate said out of the N233.656 billion allocated to the ministry for capital projects in 2024, only N26. 552 billion had been released to the ministry and utilized.
According to the minister, the ministry was yet to receive a dime from the N57.393 billion captured under the multilateral/bilateral loan for capital projects. He explained that the total budget to the minister in 2024 stood at N242, 141,830,564.51 made of N7, 476,463,610 for personnel, N998, 739,547 for overhead and N233, 656,627,407.51 for capital. He said further this amount was slightly improved upon in the 2025 budget estimates to N10,361, 373,890.69 for personnel, N1,590, 382,403 for overhead and N248,316, 907,133 for capital.
The minister told the lawmakers that Nigeria’s health sector is guided by the vision 20:2020, the medium term (National Development Plan 2021-2025 and the National Strategic Health Development Plan.
