African nations urged to partner with private sector in healthcare

An African Union (AU) official on Thursday called for African countries to partner with the private sector to try to deliver universal healthcare to their populations.

AU Commissioner for Social Services, Mustapha Kaloko, said that the governments were usually unable to meet healthcare demand due to low budgetary allocations.

"The governments must partner with the private sector to be able to meet continental and international commitments in regard to availing of medicine and medical products," Kaloko said during the Africa Health Business Symposium in Nairobi.

He revealed that an earlier attempt by the AU to see all member states contribute 15 percent of their national budgets to healthcare had been met by a few countries.

During a meeting in Abuja in 2011, African governments committed to spend 15 percent of their budgets towards health, but less than half of the African countries have met this target in any given year.

On average, between 2012 and 2014, only Malawi, Swaziland, and Ethiopia met the commitment.

"We unfortunately forgot to incorporate the private sector, and this missing link is probably reasons why most governments have not met their commitments," Kaloko said.

"We need to improve the environment of doing business for partners to set up pharmaceutical industry in the continent to accelerate realization of rights to health," Kaloko added. Endit