The co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, stated yesterday that Nigeria’s tax collection rates are low, pointing out that this poses a challenge to financing critical sectors like health and education.
Gates made these remarks during Nutrivision 2024, a Pan-African youth dialogue on nutrition held in Abuja.
Gates spoke while responding to a question on potential financing mechanisms for large-scale public health interventions.
He said: “Over time, there are plans for Nigeria to fund the government more than it does today. The actual tax collection in Nigeria is actually pretty low.
“If citizens want the education and the health things, as they develop the confidence that these programmes can be very well run, and our foundation is involved with a lot of the exemplars that are showing the way in terms of making sure the money is spent really 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 underloaded centres or overloaded centres.”
He noted that for citizens to trust the government’s ability to deliver quality healthcare, there must be a commitment to effective management of health programme funds.
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He stressed the importance of running an efficient primary healthcare system with well-placed and adequately staffed centres.
Gates also expressed optimism about Nigeria’s potential to significantly boost its agricultural output, suggesting that the country could transition from a net food importer to a major food exporter.
He spotted the need for improved credit facilities, comprehensive soil surveys, and effective advisory services for farmers as key factors in achieving this transformation.
“Nigeria today is a net food importer and yet, given the geography, if the right credit facilities and advice to farmers, soil surveys, things are available, there is the opportunity for Nigeria to more than double its food output, which would be pretty transformative, because it would mean that you would be a net food exporter.
“Instead of having to use very scarce dollars, particularly the current exchange rate to go buy food, you are actually bringing dollars in,” Gates said.
He added that agricultural productivity, particularly in rural and northern areas, is crucial for improving incomes.
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