A strong coalition among health stakeholders is necessary for a functional health tax policy in Nigeria.
Dr Gafar Alawode, Managing Partner at Development Governance International (DGI) Consult, made the assertion on Wednesday in Abuja.
He spoke during a session to share the methodology, findings and key recommendations from a thorough health policy analysis done by DGI in collaboration with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
Alawode emphasized the importance of establishing a strong and inclusive coalition and consensus in support of health taxes.
He stressed the significance of developing a local database to monitor consumption patterns and provide evidence for decision-making on health tax designs.
He emphasized the need for a broad-based pro-health tax coalition, local consumption tracking database and gathering of evidence for informed health tax decisions.
He said that the process of designing and implementing effective health tax policies was often more political than technical, indicating the importance of preparedness for misleading narratives that could undermine health taxes.
He also highlighted the necessity of maintaining a robust and accessible database for targeted products to monitor consumption levels and the impact of tax rates on prices and consumption.
He said that this would be essential for policy adjustments.
A unit head at the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, World Health Organization, Dr Robert Marten, said that understanding global political economy of health taxes was necessary.
Marten said that there was need for a study aimed to enhance the design, adoption and implementation of health taxes by exploring their political economy.
The Chief of Party at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS), Dr Bolanle Olusola-Faleye, highlighted the potential for achieving up to 20 per cent health insurance coverage for the poor and vulnerable through revenue from health taxes.
Olusola-Faleye emphasized the importance of earmarking health taxes for the health sector and demonstrating efficiency, absorptive capacity and accountability in implementation.
The President of the Nigeria Cancer Society (NCS), Dr Adamu Alhassan Umar, acknowledged advocacy efforts to accelerate adoption of health taxes for combating non-communicable diseases.
The representative of the Federal Inland Revenue Service at the event, Mr Matthew Osanekwu, said that the agency supported policy formulation and measures for excise tax to establish a comprehensive framework guiding implementation of excise taxes, including health taxes.
The Coordinator of the Health Sector Reform Coalition (HSRC), Dr Mustapha Lecky, said that the dialogue aligned with the coalition’s objective of influencing health policies.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that preliminary findings from the health tax policy analysis conducted by DGI Consult, funded by the Alliance for Health Policy and System Research, were discussed at the event, with additional insights from participants. (NAN)
