ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC HEALTH SPENDING, PER CAPITA INCOME AND LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH IN NIGERIA

Abstract

Living a healthy, earning a living income and long-life have been a general concern in Nigeria hence, the increasing government expenditure on health.  This study investigates the individual effect of public health spending, and per capita income on life expectancy rate in Nigeria. Nigeria’s life expectancy is still low when compared to the world due to the insufficient government spending on health. In addition, the Nigeria populace lack adequate income for improved nutrition and healthy lifestyle. The study employs the Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique based on the unit root test result that found all variables integrated at level and first difference.  The ARDL bounds test statistic of about 17.384 indicate that a significant long-term relationship exists among the variables of the study. The ARDL long- term result indicate that increase in per capita income and government funding to the health sector can resort to rising life expectancy at birth in Nigeria to about 0.146% and 0.0056% respectively. The study concludes that life expectancy at birth will improve with the increase in per capita income likewise, the rise in public health expenditure, leading to a sustainable growth in output. The study recommends that more percentage of the national budget should be channel to funding the health sector in Nigeria- construction of new healthcare facilities having 24/7 electricity supply in the rural areas. The government of Nigeria should raise per capita income such that the people of Nigeria can afford better nutrition.