Twenty-four years after African leaders pledged to devote at least 15 per cent of national budgets to healthcare under the Abuja Declaration, Nigeria is still falling significantly short of the target.
The Federal Government has proposed a N2.48 trillion allocation to the health sector in the 2026 budget, representing about six per cent of the total N58.47 trillion spending plan presented to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu on December 19, 2025.
The allocation comes amid mounting challenges in the health sector, including acute manpower shortages, worsening brain drain popularly known as the “japa syndrome,” poor welfare for health workers, obsolete medical equipment, frequent industrial actions and declining global health funding.
Health experts say the latest allocation underscores Nigeria’s persistent failure to prioritise healthcare, despite repeated commitments since the 2001 Abuja Declaration, which was aimed at strengthening health systems, expanding access to care and reducing preventable deaths across Africa.
They warn that continued underfunding has left Nigeria’s health system overstretched and vulnerable, particularly as external donor funding continues to shrink.
Concerns have also been raised over the impact of recent global funding cuts, following an executive order signed in 2025 by United States President Donald Trump to pause foreign aid to Nigeria and other countries. Experts fear the decision could further strain an already fragile health system, despite ongoing domestic efforts to mobilise alternative funding.
Although President Tinubu, while presenting the 2026 budget titled “Budget of Consolidation, Renewed Resilience and Shared Prosperity,” acknowledged increased investment in healthcare, analysts argue that the figures still fall far below international and continental benchmarks.
“In healthcare, I am pleased to highlight that investment in healthcare is six per cent of the total budget size, net of liabilities,” Tinubu said.
“We also appreciate the support of international partners. Recent high-level engagements with the Government of the United States have opened the door to over 500 million dollars for health interventions across Nigeria.”
However, experts insist that donor support cannot replace sustained domestic investment.
Comparative data shows that countries such as Rwanda and South Africa have consistently met or exceeded the 15 per cent Abuja benchmark, while Nigeria has struggled to allocate even 10 per cent to the sector.
A review of Nigeria’s health budget over the past 24 years reveals that the country has never met the Abuja Declaration target since it was adopted in 2001.
A 2021 report by PACFaH@Scale, which analysed budgets of the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies between 2001 and 2021, found that average health sector allocation over two decades stood at about 4.7 per cent.
The report noted that even with additional funding streams such as the Basic Health Care Provision Fund and service-wide votes, health sector allocations never exceeded seven per cent.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, widely regarded as a wake-up call for health systems globally, Nigeria allocated just 4.5 per cent of its total budget to health in 2021.
Recent allocations have followed a similar pattern. The health sector received N547bn in 2021, N826.9bn in 2022, N1.17tn in 2023, N1.33tn in 2024, and N2.48tn in 2025 — all below the 15 per cent commitment.
Experts warn that unless healthcare funding is treated as a matter of national development and security, Nigeria risks deepening systemic weaknesses in its health system, with dire consequences for citizens’ wellbeing and economic productivity.