GOVERNMENT HEALTH EXPENDITURE, EDUCATION AND UNDER-5 MORTALITY RATE IN NIGERIA
Blessing Ijeoma Igwe and Ese Uhrie
Volume 8 Issue 1
Abstract
Given Nigeria's persistently poor health throughout the years, this research looked into the third Sustainable Development Goal (SDG-3), aimed at ensuring a healthy lifestyle and promoting the well-being of all people of all ages. Nigeria was the world's poorest performer in 2019, with a rate of 117.2 per 1000 live births. This study explored the extent to which government health expenditure in Nigeria has promoted health outcomes in the context of education level, based on existing theories that support the relevance of finance in promoting health outcomes. The time series between 1982-2019 were used in the study as a measure of health results, the study used the under-five mortality rate (U5MR). Other variables in this study include the primary school enrolment rate and federal government health spending throughout the period under consideration. The study uses a quantitative research method to describe and analyse the impacts of health expenditure and education on the under-5 death rate in Nigeria. A Co-integration econometric approach was employed on the Eviews-9 econometric package to evaluate the interactive effect of healthcare spending and education on the under-five mortality rate using Nigerian data. The analysis revealed that neither government spending nor education alone will be sufficient to reduce U5MR in Nigeria in the short run. According to the study, econometric and statistical models used .to analyse health and other social issues should be developed to reflect reality. Keywords: Education, Health, Government Expenditure, Under-5 Mortality Rate.
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