Dr Osagie Ehanire, Nigeria’s Minister of Health has said that the 200 million dollars loan request is Nigeria’s counterpart fund to complement a global malaria action plan to combat malaria in the country. Ehanire made the disclosure at the Bi-Weekly National Briefing on COVID-19, Cholera, Health Promotion, and other related issues in Abuja.
Recall that the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Loans kicked against a proposal by the health ministry to borrow 200million dollars under the Malaria Programme to buy mosquito nets in the 2022 budget. The committee’s condemnation was in response to the Ministry of Health’s submission about its intention to borrow the amount for the purchase of mosquito nets for 13 vulnerable states.
Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mahmuda Mamman had justified the proposal before the panel saying, “the loan if approved by the National Assembly and accessed, will be used to medically fight malaria in the 13 orphan states which cover 208 local government councils and 3, 536 primary health care centres”.
Angered by his submission, Sen. Ibrahim Oloriegbe and other senators present descended heavily on the permanent secretary. Oloriegbe wondered why N450 million was budgeted for malaria treatment in the proposed 2022 budget yet, plans were being made to borrow 200 million dollars for the same purpose.
“This is unacceptable. We should be able to put our feet down when dealing with these donor agencies or creditors as regards loans to be taken and what it should be expended on,” he fumed at the session.
While responding to question, the minister said that the amount in question was referred to a component of the World Bank assisted multilateral borrowing plan and it involved the African Development Bank and the Islamic bank.
