By Emman Ovuakporie & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA—AHEAD of the presentation of the 2017 budget by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly, the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, yesterday, pleaded with the lawmakers not to cut the allocation to his ministry.

The Minister, who made this appeal at the opening ceremony of a two-day public hearing conducted by the Chike John Okafor-led House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services on financing healthcare and the revitalisation of Primary Healthcare system, also denied insinuations that $400 million meant to eradicate polio was stolen.

Isaac-Adewole

Meanwhile, stakeholders at the public hearing geared towards averting health crisis in Primary Healthcare Service, had told the Federal Government to utilise the N3 trillion National Health Insurance Scheme in government kitty.

In his address on the occasion, the health minister decried the fact that the allocation to health was reduced by 33 percent in the 2016 budget, further worsening the challenge of funding the health sector.