Lagos NMA Chairman Calls for 60-70% Budget Allocation to Primary Healthcare

The Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State branch, Dr. Babajide Saheed, has urged a major shift in health sector funding, insisting that primary healthcare should receive between 60 and 70 per cent of budgetary allocations across all tiers of government.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief programme on Monday, Dr. Saheed stressed that primary healthcare remains the backbone of accessible, preventive, and community-based medical services. He warned that without strong investment at this level, efforts to improve overall health outcomes would continue to falter.

“I always said, I will continue to say it, you look at the federal government, the state government and local government, are not listening. And the main thing is that primary healthcare is the most important component in the healthcare delivery system,” he said.

Dr. Saheed argued that primary healthcare should take priority over secondary and tertiary care in public spending, lamenting the persistent neglect by successive governments. “The primary healthcare should take about 60 to 70 per cent of the budgetary allocation, now followed by the secondary, and now followed by the tertiary,” he said.

He described the current approach as undermining the entire health system, adding, “Any country that has no primary healthcare, it has a failed health system. We are having a failed health system in this country.”

Using Lagos State as an example, Dr. Saheed noted that the state’s approximately 300 primary care centres are insufficient for its population. He also raised concerns about staffing, particularly the availability of doctors in these facilities. “From these 300 primary care centres, how many of them have doctors? Those are the questions we must also ask,” he said.

The call comes amid criticism of the Federal Government’s 2026 health sector allocation, which is about N2.48 trillion roughly 4 per cent of the total national budget equating to about N10,400 per citizen annually, a figure the NMA has repeatedly described as grossly inadequate.