
Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, has called the government to prioritise mobilising domestic resources to sustain health services and protect vulnerable populations, warning that overreliance on donor funding threatens the country’s health security.
Pate made the remarks on Thursday during a panel session titled “Reflections on Emerging Challenges in Health Financing” at the National Health Financing Dialogue in Abuja, where he acknowledged that donor support has played an important role in funding healthcare initiatives but stressed that Nigeria must take ownership of its health sector to ensure sustainability.
“We cannot pretend perfection, but we have to strengthen our institutions so they continue to move from strength to strength.
“Bypassing national systems and creating separate budgets outside government structures only breeds inefficiency and waste”, Pate said.
The minister urged development partners to align with Nigeria’s sector-wide health financing strategy by channeling funds through national systems — even if imperfect — to help improve them.
“Over time, there should be no stand-alone delivery units. Funds must flow directly through ministries with proper safeguards in place,” he added.
Echoing Pate’s position, former president of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka, said Africa’s health financing challenge is not about foreign aid but about responsible domestic resource mobilisation.
He highlighted that Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio remains 11–12%, at least three percentage points below the sub-Saharan African average, meaning many Nigerians are not contributing their fair share to the tax pool.
Kaberuka also outlined the “Four A’s” that should guide any sustainable health financing framework – Availability, Accessibility, Affordability, Accountability.
He stressed that an effective financing model should also pool risks across governments, communities, companies, and individuals, while providing safety nets for the most vulnerable populations.