By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa
The release of just N36 million from the N218 billion capital allocation to the health sector in the 2025 budget has sparked concern among stakeholders, who warn that the development could further undermine service delivery in public hospitals already grappling with equipment shortages and an exodus of health workers.
The N36 million disbursed represents roughly 0.02 per cent of the N218 billion earmarked for capital projects in the 2025 fiscal year, effectively stalling critical infrastructure and procurement plans.
Health experts say the shortfall has delayed hospital upgrades, acquisition of essential medical equipment and the expansion of primary healthcare facilities at a time when Nigeria’s health indicators — including maternal and neonatal mortality rates, high disease burden and heavy out-of-pocket spending — remain troubling.
The sector has also been weighed down by persistent funding gaps, repeated industrial actions by health workers, worsening brain drain and reductions in global health financing.
Nigeria continues to fall short of the African Union’s 2001 Abuja Declaration commitment to allocate at least 15 per cent of its national budget to health, more than two decades after signing the pact.
Speaking during the 2026 budget defence before the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, attributed the ministry’s inability to implement its 2025 capital projects to the wide gap between appropriated and released funds.
“Out of the N218bn appropriated to the health sector by the parliament for the execution of capital projects in the 2025 fiscal year, only N36m was released,” the minister said.
Stakeholders argue that withholding capital funds in a fragile health system carries grave consequences.
The Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association, Lagos State branch, Dr Babajide Saheed, described the development as disappointing and potentially damaging to national health outcomes.
According to him, the poor release of funds suggests that healthcare is not being treated as a priority.
“That shows that the health of Nigerians, generally, is not their priority and not their concern. Capital projects are part of the development of the health sector. The government is failing Nigeria by not providing what was supposed to be provided,” he said.
Saheed expressed concern that despite failing to meet the Abuja Declaration benchmark, the government had also not fully released funds already approved by the National Assembly.
He warned that failure to fund capital projects threatens infrastructure development, emergency response capacity and management of maternal and chronic health conditions.
“If you give an important sector like health a low allocation for capital projects, there will be less infrastructure, less access and less delivery of emergency care to patients. What happens? Mortality increases at the end of the day, and our health system will not improve,” he said.
He urged the Federal Government to ensure full and timely release of funds to safeguard healthcare delivery.
Similarly, the immediate past Vice Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Ogun State chapter, Dr Olumide Obube, described the capital budget release as a national embarrassment.
“This represents not merely an administrative shortfall but a profound national embarrassment with far-reaching implications for Nigeria’s health system. A capital release of approximately 0.02% of the approved allocation effectively amounts to non-implementation,” he said.
Obube noted that capital expenditure is central to health system transformation, funding infrastructure development, procurement of modern equipment, laboratory expansion, oxygen plants, digital health systems and upgrades of tertiary hospitals.
“Without capital financing, systems stagnate,” he added.
He further stressed that with maternal mortality estimated at over 500 deaths per 100,000 live births and neonatal mortality above 35 per 1,000 live births, the funding gap raises serious concerns about Nigeria’s ability to improve health outcomes.
