The Health Sector Reform Coalition Nigeria (HSRC) has called for a legislative probe into the alleged release of only N36 million out of the N218 billion capital budget appropriated to the Federal Ministry of Health in 2025.
Chairman of HSRC, Dr. Muhammad Lecky, made the call in Abuja during a press briefing, citing media reports in The Guardian of February 9, 2026, which quoted the Minister of Health as disclosing during the Ministry’s 2026 budget defence before the House of Representatives Committee that only N36 million, about 0.016 per cent, of the N218 billion capital allocation for 2025 was released.
Lecky described the disclosure as “one of the most alarming fiscal performance failures in Nigeria’s recent governance history,” warning that such extreme under-release of capital funds exposes deep structural weaknesses in public financial management, intergovernmental coordination, and national development prioritisation.
According to him, budget appropriation without corresponding cash backing undermines the credibility of Nigeria’s planning frameworks and poses grave danger to the ongoing health sector reforms under the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII).
He said: “If ministries cannot predict or rely on capital releases, long-term infrastructure projects, hospital upgrades, digital health systems, supply chains, and workforce expansion become effectively impossible. It is therefore no surprise that the national health system is underperforming.”
He noted that the near-total collapse of capital releases implies stalled construction of primary healthcare facilities, delayed procurement of medical equipment, and setbacks in health technology investments and workforce retention reforms.
He added, “The coalition further argued that the imbalance, where personnel costs are largely released while infrastructure investment stagnates, creates fragile operating environments for health workers and leads to declining service quality, rising out-of-pocket expenditure, and widening health inequities.
“The future of Nigeria’s health system depends on a decisive shift to sustainable, domestically driven financing and fiscal discipline in the release of funds as appropriated.
“What currently exists such as the release of a mere N36m from N218b capital budget in 2025 is not acceptable and requires legislative investigation/public hearing to forestall future occurrence.
“We should mainstream the provisions of the National Health Act in our national budget estimates in the spirit of the plan, policy, law, budget continuum and in keeping with implementing extant legislative health policies, which the National Health Act 2014 represents.
“The required resources should be funded from savings, reallocations of expenditure proposals and sin taxes. And finally. the Ministry of Health in collaboration with CSOs should devise and mainstream
an accountability framework for monitoring and reporting on all health expenditure as well as ensuring proper budgeting to the greatest health priorities. This will not only ensure value for money but more health from available resources.”
HSRC also raised concerns about the 2026 health budget proposal. Out of the N58.47 trillion proposed federal budget, N2.915 trillion, about 4.98 per cent, was allocated to the health sector, including N214.9 billion for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).
The coalition said the allocation falls short of the 15 per cent benchmark set under the 2001 Abuja Declaration and even below the 6 per cent minimum intervention threshold provided in Section 4 of the Appropriation Bill, net of debt service.
Lecky noted that beyond the Federal Ministry of Health headquarters, the allocation covers 148 other agencies and institutions under the Ministry, making the funding envelope even more constrained.
He also faulted the inclusion of bulk capital votes without detailed breakdowns in the 2026 proposal, warning that opacity in budget design undermines transparency and may contribute to poor fund releases and weak implementation.
On health financing, HSRC reiterated its call for earmarking portions of “sin taxes” on tobacco, alcohol, sugar-sweetened beverages, and other levies to fund health interventions, as recommended in the National Health Care Financing Policy and Strategy.
The coalition recommended increasing the health allocation to at least 10 per cent of the national budget, ringfencing health votes to ensure timely releases of not less than 85 per cent of appropriated sums, and boosting funding for primary healthcare, maternal and child health, nutrition, and family planning.
It also called for at least N100 billion to kickstart the Vulnerable Group Fund under the National Health Insurance Authority Act and for not less than 50 per cent of proceeds from sin taxes to be channelled to the health sector.
“While advocacy for the Federal Government to meet the 15 per cent Abuja Declaration benchmark is important, the release and utilisation of appropriated sums should attract even greater civil society oversight,” Lecky stated.
He warned that declining development assistance and Nigeria’s heavy reliance on external funding for programmes such as immunisation, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria further heighten the urgency for sustainable domestic resource mobilisation.