The Senate has initiated a major push to overhaul Nigeria’s health financing architecture by proposing an amendment to the National Health Act that will increase statutory funding for the sector from the current one per cent to two per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF).
If passed, the adjustment will raise annual health funding from ₦549.9 billion to about ₦1.0998 trillion, based on the ₦54.99 trillion CRF approved for the 2025 fiscal year.
The move formed the highlight of a public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary) yesterday in Abuja.
Lawmakers, health experts and government officials on the occasion deliberated on five bills aimed at strengthening the country’s health system.
The focus on the National Health Act (Amendment) Bill, sponsored by Senator Ipalibo Banigo (Rivers West), overshadowed others as senators lamented Nigeria’s chronically low investment in health despite rising disease burdens.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, represented by the Senate Chief Whip, Mohammed Monguno, said Nigeria’s current health funding levels fall far short of continental and global standards.
He noted the proposed amendment was central to reversing years of underinvestment that have weakened primary healthcare, slowed disease prevention efforts, undermined workforce development and left emergency response systems fragile.
Akpabio said, “The current funding levels for the health sector remain far below the commitments we have made at continental and global levels.
“This National Health Act (Amendment) Bill aims to strengthen the financial framework that supports primary healthcare, disease prevention, health workforce development and emergency response.
“Increased funding is not an expense; it is an investment in national security, economic growth, and human capital.”
He stressed the bills before the committee were not abstract legislative exercises but responses to urgent health challenges affecting millions of Nigerians every day.
One of the bills, the Sickle Cell Disorder Research and Therapy Centres (Establishment) Bill, sponsored by Senator Sunday Katung (Kaduna South), seeks to establish seven specialised centres across the six geopolitical zones and the Federal Capital Territory.
Katung said Nigeria bears the highest global burden of sickle cell disorder, with an estimated 150,000 babies born with the condition annually.
He said many of whom do not survive to adulthood due to inadequate diagnosis and lack of access to specialised care.
Katung said, “These Centres represent a commitment that Nigeria will finally provide our children with sickle cell disorder the same standard of care available in other parts of the world.”
He described the proposed hubs as places of excellence where patients would receive specialist care and families obtain necessary counselling.
Also before the committee were bills seeking the establishment of the Orthopaedic Hospital in Kogi State, sponsored by Senator Isa Jibrin (Kogi East), and two National Eye Care Centres for Plateau and Benue States, sponsored by Senators Diket Plang and Titus Zam respectively.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Banigo, said doubling the health allocation from the CRF was long overdue.
She described the current one per cent Basic Health Care Provision Fund as “abysmally low” and incapable of supporting the country’s expanding health needs.
Akpabio assured Nigerians that the National Assembly would continue to strengthen laws that respond to Nigeria’s evolving health realities and rebuild public confidence in the nation’s health institutions.
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