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COVID‐19 and progress towards achieving universal health coverage in Africa: A case of Nigeria
Author(s) -
Amos Oladunni Abimbola,
Adebisi Yusuff Adebayo,
Bamisaiye Adeola,
Olayemi Alaka Hassan,
Ilesanmi Esther Bosede,
Micheal Alumuku Iordepuun,
Ekpenyong Aniekan,
LuceroPrisno Don Eliseo
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the international journal of health planning and management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1099-1751
pISSN - 0749-6753
DOI - 10.1002/hpm.3263
Subject(s) - pandemic , government (linguistics) , economic growth , poverty , business , health care , workforce , developing country , global health , covid-19 , healthcare system , development economics , medicine , economics , linguistics , philosophy , disease , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty)
Universal Health Coverage (UHC) 2030 is a global health target, and countries are making efforts to convert plans into tangible results. Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa, has made commitments towards UHC2030 target but is underperforming across many building blocks of health and progress has been slow. The arrival of COVID‐19 poses additional pressure on the already feeble health system causing the government to direct focus towards containing the pandemic. However, existing gaps in health workforce density, weak primary health care infrastructure and inadequate budgetary allocation have resulted in inequitable access to basic healthcare services. This situation weighs most heavily on the poor who are mostly part of the informal economy thereby pushing people further into poverty. On the other hand, COVID‐19 has provided valuable insights into Nigeria's current health system status which hopefully can be helpful in strengthening efforts towards building resilient health system and preparing the country towards future pandemic. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of essential health services and the need to strengthen primary healthcare system. It is, therefore, important that stakeholders in Nigeria and other African countries carry out situation analysis of the current health systems towards achieving UHC2030.