Nigeria to spend 12% of 2007 budget on health

[Richard Akindele]

Abuja, Nigeria 07/29 - Nigeria is to allocate 12% of its 2007 budget to the health sector, President Olusegun Obasanjo has told West African Health Ministers meeting here.

Opening the ministerial meeting Thursday, he reaffirmed his administration`s determination to continue to treat health as "a national priority along with education, food and nutrition."

Acknowledging that the 12% allocation was below the 15% pledged by African leaders at the 2001 Abuja Summit on HIV/AIDS, the Nigerian leader said his administration was "striving very hard to meet this target by allotting sufficient funds from regular allocations as well as from debt relief gains."

He expressed the hope that other African countries were making similar budgetary efforts, even while expressing fears that the 15% target "may still not be enough" to meet the Millennium Development Goal on health.

In an address read on his behalf by junior Health Minister, Halima Alao, Health Minister Eyitayo Lambo said Nigeria was hosting the meeting for the first time since the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) came into being in 2000.

The Minister commended President Obasanjo`s leadership in mobilising political support and resources at the highest level in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and polio in Africa.

Angola Press