What Does Good Health Mean for the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan?

Lanre Tejuoso

The executive arm of government is currently developing an Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) – it is one that if well-articulated and implemented should take Nigeria out of recession within the shortest possible time. As the technocrats and advisers working frantically on the ERGP struggle to meet the deadline for completing the document it is important that I highlight the role of the health sector in driving sustainable growth in Nigeria through the ERGP. It is not unusual for economists and even my colleagues to downplay the role of health in our growth plan. That “Health is Wealth” is a truism that is worthy of consideration – in essence how does good health in the lives of our people or constituents matter and how does good (bad) health affect their economic power, productivity and potential to live fulfilled financial lives?

My current role as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health working with my colleagues in the eight senate has fostered on me the responsibility to ensure that proposals in budget appropriations and its implementation meets the necessary threshold for impact. We are also committed to ensuring that our oversight functions keep bureaucrats on their toes to do the needful at all times. I will like to use this medium to articulate a few actions which will only add value to the proposed ERGP from a health sector perspective.

Increase productivity through a focus on addressing malnutrition: The ability to earn depends on the productivity of people and by extension the country. Nigeria is currently undergoing a Malnutrition crisis. Nigeria is home to the third largest population of chronically undernourished children in the world – we have 11 million children that will either die or not develop to their full potential! This problem is uneven across the country – the North East & North West geo political zones have stunting rates in excess of fifty percent. Studies have indicated that stunted children will have poor schooling outcomes and over the long term results in a 10-17 percent of loss wages. It is also estimated that we lose well over US$1.5billion to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. This is unacceptable and a serious ERGP should address this. I will like to see an ERGP that is focused on small but highly impactful actions – improving access to micronutrient supplements like Vitamin A, iron, Zinc these are so cheap it is unbelievable that they are not widely available in Nigeria.

We need to institutionalise actions to make Nigeria competitive through the health system: The World Economic Forum in its Global Competitiveness Index report listed 12 pillars of economic competiveness. Nigeria is ranked 127th of 138 countries. One of these pillars is Health and Primary Education (Pillar 4). Our performance on this particular pillar is 138th of 138 countries and it is the pillar for which Nigeria performed the poorest of all the 12 pillars. Health and Primary Education has the following indicators; Business impact of malaria, Malaria cases, Business impact of tuberculosis, Tuberculosis cases, Business impact of HIV/AIDS, HIV prevalence, Infant mortality, Life expectancy, Quality of primary education, and Primary education enrollment. Being uncompetitive means we are unattractive to the right kind of investors and investments that could lead to economic recovery and growth. Essentially, if we must become competitive we must refocus our effort on ensuring we invest adequately in the health systems. As shown in the 2016-17 Global Competitive Index report, most developed countries have very developed health systems. They are the nations we run to and spend billions of dollars on health tourism. They are attractive to us because they have taken due time to consider that health is a source of economic growth. Take the example of India wealth. Today, they are reaping some economic benefits from the likes of Nigeria because they invested massively in healthcare. We can begin on the path of recovery and growth by doing same. The seventh senate passed into law the National Health Act and same was signed into law by the President at the time – during the hustings my party promised to implement the provisions of that Act which means that a sum of at least N35 billion Naira should have been appropriated in the budget estimates to the National assembly; it was not provided for. The eighth senate is committed to correcting this and I urge those drawing up the plan to make provision for the implementation of the Basic healthcare provision fund in the ERGP.

Provide the building blocks for reaping the Demographic Dividend: Nigeria has a once-only opportunity to benefit from what is known as a “demographic dividend”, a tremendous boost to the economy made possible by a changing population structure. The fact that economic growth can be spurred by demographic changes matters because the ERGP has many potentials to catalyze and accelerate the requisite changes and to capture the potential economic benefits that follow. The requisite and relevant options for capturing the demographic dividend will only happen if the government invests in its women, children and youth. This requires investments in reproductive health, in reducing infant and child mortality and in education, especially that of girls. Doing so can produce a healthy educated youth to enter the workforce, allowing capture of the “demographic dividend” and avoiding a “demographic disaster”. We are raising one of the most viable youth population in the world, but without a sound health system, this may be to our disadvantage as we may end up with mass youth population that are unhealthy, unproductive and unable to make economic contribution to Nigeria’s economy.

Expand pro poor health insurance in Nigeria: Poverty reduction in Nigeria has not been commensurate with our economic growth. At the national level poverty rates has stubbornly remained at 35.6% in 2011 and they remained unchanged (at 36 percent) through 2013.

––Senator Lanre Tejuoso is a medical doctor and senator representing the Ogun Central Senatorial district. He is the chairman of the Senate committee on Health. The article was written before the release of the ERGP.

(See concluding part on www.thisdaylive.com)