Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has stated that tax collection in Nigeria is low.
Speaking on September 4, at the Nutrivision 2024, a pan-African youth dialogue on nutrition held in Nigeria’s capital city, Abuja, Gates addressed questions regarding financing mechanisms for large-scale public health interventions in Nigeria.
He noted that low tax collection presents significant challenges for funding crucial sectors such as health and education.
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Gates highlighted Nigeria’s potential to become a net exporter of food due to its vast land and favorable soil types. He said: “In agriculture, Nigeria, today, is a net food importer given the geography, if the right credit facilities and advice to farmers, soil surveys, (and other) things are available, there’s the opportunity for Nigeria to more than double its food output which would be transformative because it would mean that you’d be a net food exporter instead of having to use very scarce dollars particularly at the current exchange rate to go buy food, you’re bringing dollars in.”
He continued: “Particularly, agricultural productivity is important for the incomes in the rural, more northern areas and so embracing digital approaches, better seeds to get this kind of an agricultural miracle to take place that’s going to help the country in terms of equity, in terms of women, and in terms of these nutrition issues.”
Regarding health funding, Gates emphasized: “The health piece will have to be a priority. Over time, there are plans for Nigeria to fund the government more than it does today. The actual tax collection in Nigeria is pretty low.”
Gates also mentioned the importance of building confidence in public and private programs for education and health: “Our foundations are involved with a lot of the examples, showing the way in terms of making sure the money is spent well, running a very efficient primary health care system where the employees are doing great work, the centres are where they should be, you don’t have under-loaded centres or overloaded centres.”
He concluded: “It’s exciting that we’re driving the credibility of those health programmes, and so the citizens will feel like yes primary health care is amongst the priorities that should be funded as you get some fiscal flexibility.”
