Nigeria has very high death rates in children under the age of 5 years. Currently, these statistics are the highest in the world. Policies designed to reduced childhood mortality should be considered by the Nigerian Government.
Most deaths among Nigerian children in this age group are preventable and are largely composed of treatable childhood infections such as lower respiratory tract infections (Pneumonia), diarrhoeal diseases, malaria among others. Many of these deaths occur
at home, while others occur in pediatric hospital emergency rooms. Due to considerable Out of Pocket Expenditure (OOPE) for medical services. Many children are not brought to the hospital, while others present critically ill at a late stage, increasing the potentially preventable mortality rates.
The present Nigerian National Health Insurance scheme covers less than 5% of the Nigerian population with low utilization rate among its beneficiaries, so most Nigerian children under the age of 5 years are not covered.
In order to reduce mortality rates, the Nigerian Federal Government should consider free pediatric emergency room healthcare services for all children under the age of 5 years. As a consequence, more families would seek earlier and potentially curative medical care in hospitals. To solve this urgent problem, we propose that free emergency room healthcare should be funded using
1% of oil resources and 1% of VAT in Nigeria.