New Telegraph

Report: N10.4trn subsidy can build world class hospitals

The Nigerian government has spent a whopping N10.413 trillion on fuel subsidy between 2006 and 2019, a period of 14 years, an amount more than what it required to construct and fully equip 38 units of 500-bed world class hospitals.

 

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who said the figure of spending at a media briefing in Abuja, maintained that the quantum of fund spent subsidising petroleum products during that period translated to an average of N743.8 billion per annum.

 

The annual spending of N743.8 billion on subsidy is, according to checks by Platforms Africa, even less than the total investments required to construct, fully equip and run five World-class 500 bed hospitals. “Using the figure supplied by World Renowned Radiologist, Medical and Imaging Informatics, Davi Channin, a new 500 bed hospital, fully equipped, might cost $1.5 million per bed = $750million.

 

“Operating expenses might be $2000 per bed per day = $365Million per year with 3 thousand or so employees including providers,” the repory read. Using the N360 per dollar average foreign exchange rate, $750 million total estimate for construction and fully equipping a unit of 500 bed world class hospital amounts to N270 billion and the total investments requirement for 38 units of auch asset is N10.26 trillion.

 

The total of N10.413 trillion spending within the period of 14 years will, according to checks, construct and fully equip about 38 World-class 500 bed hospitals.

Mohammed, who was joined at the briefing by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, and Minister of Power, Alhaji Saleh Mamman, said the cost of running the fuel subsidy scheme was too high and unsustainable.

 

According to figures provided by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the breakdown of the 14- year subsidy regime showed that Nigeria spent the sum of N257 billion in 2006: N272 billion in 2007; N631 billion in 2008; N469 billion in 2009 and N667 billion in 2010. Similarly, the scheme gulped the sum of N2.105 trillion in 2011; N1.355 trillion in 2012; N1.316 trillion in 2013 and N1.217 trillion in 2014.

 

The cost dramatically dropped to N654 billion in 2015; N144.3 billion in 2017; N730.86 billion in 2018 and N595 billion last year. However, the data did not provide the figure for 2016 and also gave no explanation for the omission.

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