Health
THE West African College of Physicians (WACP), Nigeria, has called for ring-fencing of health budgets at 15 per cent minimum to cut Nigeria’s 76 per cent out-of-pocket (OOP) health spending.
Prof. Olufemi Ogunbiyi, the Local Organising Committee (LOC) Chairman of WACP Nigeria 50th Annual General and Scientific Meeting (AGSM), made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Ibadan.
Ogunbiyi is also a professor of Pathology at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.
Ogunbiyi said out-of-pocket payments constituted approximately 76 per cent of total health expenditure in Nigeria, exposing millions to catastrophic spending and impoverishment.
He noted that WACP had consistently called for health as a fundamental human right.
Through its Nigeria Chapter’s 2025 AGM sub-theme, he said, WACP specifically spotlighted the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) as the vehicle for structural reform.
He said the College proposed a tri-pillar financing architecture.
This, he said, included full activation and ring-fencing of the statutory BHCPF, constitutionally mandated as one per cent of Consolidated Revenue Fund.
It also includes community-based social health insurance targeting the informal sector, he added.
“The third pillar is a progressive tax-financed risk pool consolidating formal payroll contributions,” he explained.
Citing lessons, Ogunbiyi said Ghana’s NHIS, launched in 2003, combined a 2.5 per cent VAT levy with payroll deductions to reduce OOP expenditure.
Ghana reduced OOP from about 50 per cent to 26 per cent, he said.
He added that persistent gaps in informal-sector enrolment showed what Nigeria must design around rather than replicate blindly.
He referenced Bangladesh’s community clinic model, which integrated community health workers with a single pooled funding mechanism.
The model improved primary care access among the rural poor, he said.
It underpins Bangladesh’s UHC Roadmap 2026 to 2035, Ogunbiyi noted.
He also cited India’s Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY, covering 500 million poorest citizens through government-funded insurance.
It improved hospitalisation rates, though OOP impact remained modest, he said.
According to him, this shows coverage breadth without supply-side investment is insufficient.
Ogunbiyi pointed to Cuba’s family physician programme as proof universal primary care is achievable in resource-constrained settings.
He remarked that the programme was fully state-financed, community-embedded, and prevention-oriented.
On WACP’s impact, he disclosed that the college had trained about 7,000 specialists since inception.
Ogunbiyi said while many worked across West Africa, others had migrated abroad.
“With better working conditions, we would undoubtedly have retained more and improved our specialist-to-population ratio,” Ogunbiyi said.
He added that the College has consistently fulfilled its mandate by producing highly trained physicians.
These physicians, he emphasised, continue to make valuable contributions within West Africa and internationally.
Ogunbiyi called for stronger government support for postgraduate medical education.
He described WACP’s training role as a vital public service.
“Governments must recognise that investing in postgraduate medical education is an investment in national health security.
“Supporting institutions like the West African College of Physicians should be regarded as essential, not optional,” Ogunbiyi stated.
He lamented that many teaching hospitals continued to struggle with inadequate resources.
These challenges inevitably affected both training and patient care, he noted.
He said securing government support for the conference had not been easy in spite of the College’s public service role.
Ogunbiyi urged member states to legislate ring-fencing of health budgets at a minimum of 15 percent in line with the Abuja Declaration.
He also urged them to mandate enrolment in contributory pools and task WACP chapters as technical advisors to national health insurance authorities.
The LOC Chairman said the 50th AGSM, to be hosted by UCH, Ibadan, will hold from July 6 to July 11, 2026.
He said activities to mark the programme included medical outreach, lectures, courtesy visits and workshops.
He added that the medical outreach would target 500 people, including children and adults.
According to him, it will hold at Kasumu Ajia and its environment, using Kasumu Ajia General Hospital as the hub.
The professor of pathology further disclosed that the outreach would improve community health in Oyo State through health talks.
He said it would inculcate preventive health habits and health promotion consciousness among community members.
“The outreach will reduce the burden of infectious diseases such as malaria and URTI among children and adults.
“This will be through screening and prompt treatment.
“It will also increase diagnosis and management of non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes and peptic ulcer disease.
“The outreach will reduce the burden of dental caries and periodontal disease through dental caret; reduce the burden of refractive error disorders through visual screening and interventions.
“The outreach will reduce the burden of surgical swellings such as hernia, lipoma and hydrocele, these are amenable to simple uncomplicated surgical interventions,” Ogunbiyi explained.
According to him, conditions to be screened will include malaria, URTI, helminths, STIs, scabies, impetigo, HIV, UTI, diabetes and hypertension.
Others will be peptic ulcer disease, conjunctivitis, refractive error, dental related diseases, hernia, lipoma, hydrocele and wound debridement, among others.
(NAN)
W.U
July 3, 2026
Tags: Prof. Olufemi Ogunbiyi