The Association of Nigeria Health Journalists, ANHEJ, has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to consider scaling up annual budgetary allocation to the health sector with a view to sufficiently addressing the challenges facing the health sector in Nigeria.
The Association president , Joseph Kadiri, who gave the advice during the opening of the 7th annual ANHEJ conference in Akwanga Nasarawa state on Thursday, explained that the allocation of 1.33 trillion naira, representing five percent of the entire 2024 Proposed Budget, is abysmally low.
Other speakers called for a collective approach to ensuring that Primary Healthcare Centers are well equipped and accessible to every citizen to enable them make positive impact on community people.
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The theme of the three-day conference is, “Health Security: Nigeria’s Efforts to Achieve Universal Health Coverage” and it also has sub-themes on several burning health issues aimed at taking stock of progress and challenges in critical areas that require urgent attention, particularly the current diphtheria outbreak which has claimed over 600 lives from over 7, 000 cases.