Investing in Health as a key step to growing the Economy

Nigeria's population is one of the country's most important resources. The population is growing diffidently and it is youthful. At the current growth rate, based on the fertility rate revealed by the DHS, Nigeria will become the fourth largest country in the world by population in 2050.

In order to exploit the huge human resources, Nigeria will need to make faster progress in reducing newborn, infant and child mortality. Nigeria also needs to drastically reduce maternal mortality, at the same time increasing reproductive health services and rights-based family planning. Nigeria also needs to rapidly increase access to quality education for literacy and numeracy among our girls and women, especially in the Northern parts of the country where the DHS data shows appalling statistics in this regard. She should find culture-appropriate ways to empower her girls and women to participate in building the nation in a contemporary way.

Another important aspect revealed by the DHS is with regard to the nutritional status of Nigeria's children. Nearly 4 out of 10 children under 5 years of age are stunted in Nigeria due to malnutrition. This is a huge heartbreak for two main reasons. Firstly, malnutrition contributes to half of child’s death and diseases in Nigeria. Secondly, malnutrition leads to cognitive shortage in a child's development which at population level means that the potential human capital of the nation is detracted by the effect of malnutrition. The newborns, children and youth of today will need to have the intellectual capacity to compete in a globalized and competitive world in the decades to come. Yet, today, malnutrition is depriving them of the ability to reach their potential, even if they survive childhood.

In order to explain the relationship between health and economic growth, it is necessary to understand the concept of health in an expansive sense. Health is not only the absence of illnesses; it is also the ability of people to develop to their potential during their entire lives. In that sense, health is an asset individuals possess, which has essential value (being healthy is a very important source of well-being) as well as helpful value. In instrumental terms, health impacts economic growth in a number of ways. For example, it reduces production losses due to worker illness, it increases the productivity of adult as a result of better nutrition, and it lowers absenteeism rates and improves learning among school children. Health also allows for the use of natural resources that used to be totally or partially out-of-the-way due to illnesses. Finally, it permits the different use of financial resources that might normally be destined for the treatment of ill health. In totting up, health affects economic growth directly through labor productivity and the economic burden of illnesses.

Additionally, the loss of health affects the poor to a greater extent since the main, and at times, only asset they have is their body. When they become ill they have fewer alternative solutions and suffer greater consequences the results of historical studies suggest a very strong relationship between health and economic growth. Robert W. Fogel finds that between one third and one half of England’s economic growth in the past 200 years is due to improvements in the population’s food consumption.

With all this in mind, we can now understand the impact investment in health will have in the lives of the people and the economy. It means, healthier populations, which in turn increases productivity to a large extent, healthy children and families which in turn increases literacy and quality care and reduced hospital visits. Finally the resources meant for health care will be channeled to other productive sectors. This will only happen when the government makes the health sector its priority and invest in it.

Uchechi Okonmah