A FORMER deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Kingsley Moghalu, has decried African leaders’ reliance on aid for the greater chunk of their healthcare funding, amid worry over the United States’ funding freeze.
He called on African countries to prioritise healthcare funding from their resources rather than relying on foreign support.
Moghalu, the current president of the African School of Governance (ASG), a pan-African graduate school focused on public policy and governance based in Kigali, Rwanda, made the call in a statement on Friday, January 31.
He said dependence on external assistance for healthcare interventions was not a sustainable strategy for the continent.
“African countries must prioritise funding for healthcare from their own resources. Reliance on foreign aid for healthcare interventions is not wisdom.
“President Trump’s withdrawal of the U.S. from WHO is a wake-up call. African countries can fund their healthcare,” he said.
The ICIR reports that Trump signed an order to pull his country out of the World Health Organisation (WHO) membership and funding on the day he assumed power on Monday, January 20.
The order was one of the executive orders he signed on his inauguration day. It marked the second time Trump would exit the U.S. from the WHO.
He was critical of how the international health body handled COVID-19 when he first came to office, but his successor, former President Joe Biden, returned the US to the WHO.
Moghalu believes Trump’s latest action is a wake-up call for African nations to take responsibility for their healthcare systems.
He criticised African leaders for their misplaced priorities, noting that the amount of aid received was insignificant compared to the resources wasted on luxuries and corruption.
“Many simply have the wrong priorities. What many African countries receive in aid is nothing compared to the resources that are wasted on the comfort of politicians or corruptly misappropriated. There are, of course, countries that are exceptions to this general situation,” Moghalu said.
He acknowledged the African nations that have demonstrated better fiscal responsibility as exceptions to the trend.
The political economist further urged governments across the continent to take decisive action to ensure that healthcare funding is treated as a critical national priority.
The ICIR reported that the Federal Government welcomed the decision by the United States to exempt HIV treatment programmes from the 90-day freeze on foreign aid spending.
The waiver, announced by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) on Wednesday, January 29, would ensure the continued distribution of lifesaving HIV medications, providing relief for millions of Nigerians and other people around the world who rely on donor-funded treatment.
The ICIR also reported that the executive order signed by Trump had raised serious concerns among health stakeholders in Nigeria, given that the country has the highest number of people living with HIV in the West and Central African region.