House Directs Health Ministry to Commence Basic Healthcare Provision Fund

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The House of Representatives has called on the Federal Ministry of Health to commence full implementation of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF).
The Green Chamber also directed the ministry to ensure that all the stakeholders played their respective roles to ensure a successful disbursement and utilisation of the funds.

It further mandated its Committee on Healthcare Services to investigate the hindrances to full implementation of the fund since inception and  ensure that all bottlenecks to its successful implementation were effectively tackled, and reported back within six weeks for further legislative action.
The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion moved at the plenary yesterday by Hon. Julius Ihonvebere and Hon. Prince Okojie.
Moving the motion,  Ihonvebere said the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) was established in the National Health Act to extend Primary Health Care (PHC) to all Nigerians by substantially increasing the level of financial resources to PHC services.

He explained that the BHCPF was funded from the federal government’s Consolidated Revenue Fund and supplemented by grants from local and international donors, partners, the private sector, philanthropic organisations, and funds generated from innovative sources such as taxes on cigarettes and alcohol.
Ihonvebere emphasised that the Act provided that half of the fund would be used to provide a basic package of services in PHC facilities through the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) while 45 per cent would be disbursed by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) for essential drugs, maintaining PHC facilities, equipment and transportation, and strengthening human resource capacity; and the final 5 per cent would be used by the Ministry to respond to health emergencies and epidemics.

He added that since the establishment of the National Health Act in 2014, only about N128 billion had been released from the Federation Account.
He, therefore, expressed concerned that disbursement of the fund to states was withheld because most of them failed to contribute the 25 per cent  counterpart funding towards PHC projects, which is the criteria that made them eligible for fund donations,  neither did they give a proper account of the funds released to them;

The lawmaker, however,  stressed the need to commence full implementation of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) and devise strategies to ensure accountability between the stakeholders at different levels of government.