Stakeholders in the health sector have expressed dissatisfaction with the poor implementation and lack of transparency in the sector’s budget execution, calling for better monitoring and community engagement to improve service delivery.
They urged the state government to prioritize fiscal accountability, ensuring that public funds are utilized effectively to improve healthcare delivery in the state.
The call was made at a two-day stakeholder roundtable organized by the International Budget Partnership (IBP) on improved budget execution for health services.
Speaking at the event held in Abeokuta, the state capital, IBP Country Director Olayinka Babalola stated that the purpose was to bring together the government, civil society actors, and the community to discuss how to enhance the budget execution of healthcare services in the state.
Babalola, while acknowledging the state’s enhanced primary healthcare delivery, contended that numerous obstacles were preventing the full implementation of the sector’s budget.
She clarified that the move is aimed at finding possible solutions, not witch-hunting.
In his remarks, IBP Strategy and Policy Lead Onyekachi Chukwu lamented that the state health budget trends and execution rates from 2017 to 2024 have been consistently weak and often below 50 percent.
“What the trend shows is that between 2017 and 2021, Ogun’s health budget execution was consistently weak, often below 50 percent. The worst year was 2020, when only 19% of the health budget was spent. Execution rose to 26% in 2023 and 40% in 2024, showing modest recovery,” he said.
He asserted that citizens would perceive greater service if the budget were executed more effectively.
Meanwhile, they bemoaned that despite the state signing up to the Open Government Partnership (OGP) and committing to run an open and transparent budget process, accessing information such as detailed budgets and costs of renovations at various facility levels remains difficult.
“The budget provided on the state’s website is summarized by implementing ministry, which makes it difficult to track. The available Citizen Report from the Accountant General’s Office is not well detailed; however, it highlighted the renovation of five PHCs in Ado-Odo/Ota and five in Ipokia LGAs.
“The budget available is at the summary level and makes it very difficult to track specific project budget lines. None of the Auditor-General’s consolidated reports for the local governments includes relevant information or figures specifically for PHCs. Details of specific projects of ministries/agencies are not available, as we only have a lump sum for each ministry or agency,” Damilola Sodiya, a representative from IBP Action Lab, said.
Responding, the Executive Secretary of the Ogun State Primary Healthcare Board, Dr. Elijah Ogunsola, explained that the state is running a national template and cannot go beyond what the regulatory body provides.
Ogunsola assured that the government is open to collaboration to improve the state’s health system and stressed that nothing is being concealed.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Akinbobola Mosunmola, Director of Programs at Women for Peace and Gender Equality Initiative, called for at least one sign language representative at various health facilities, citing examples where people living with disabilities are unable to express themselves.
Others in attendance included Mr. Babatunde Aregbesola, Accountant General/Permanent Secretary (Treasury), represented by Mr. Olayinka Odukoya, Director Consolidated Accounts, Office of the Accountant General; Bolarinwa Adebowale, Acting DG, Bureau of Public Procurement; and Akirinmade Akindele, Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, Compliance, and Enforcement, Bureau of Public Procurement, Ogun State.
