PUBLIC HEALTH EXPENDITURE AND HEALTH OUTCOME IN NIGERIA: THE IMPACT OF GOVERNANCE

Abstract

A key element of public policy is the promotion of good health in order to attain broad based economic growth. Base on this paradigm, many countries devote huge budgetary allocation to health, but in most developing countries especially, this huge health expenditure failed to translate into better health status. This paper thus investigates how the effectiveness of public health expenditure is affected by governance in Nigeria. Data on public health expenditure and governance variable captured by the corruption perception index were regressed on infant mortality, under-five mortality and life expectancy, using both the ordinary least squares and the two-stage least squares. The result obtained showed that public health expenditure has negative effect on infant mortality and under-5 mortalities when the governance indicators are included. The policy implication is that achieving the Millennium development goal of lowering infant mortality by two-thirds by 2015; reducing under-5 mortality rate and raising life expectancy in Nigeria may be unattainable if the level of corruption is not reduced considerably.