Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng (in red) appearing before Parliament’s Health Committee
Government through the Ministry of Health wants an additional Shs652bn provided in the 2022/2023 budget to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, but the item remains as unfunded priority.
The Minister of Health, Jane Ruth Aceng made the request while appearing before Parliament’s Health Committee to defend the 2022/2023 ministerial budget estimates where she said the money would be spent on the procurement of covid-a9 vaccines.
“Covid-19 resurgence plan estimates Shs652bn will be required to mitigate the risks caused by the epidemic.. these resources are needed to procure vaccines for the target of 22million people and related supplies, storage and distribution of vaccines and logistics and other operational costs,” Aceng said.
The Minister informed the Committee that in 2022/2023 FY, Government intends to vaccinate 22 million Ugandans and Shs73.11bn has been set aside for covid vaccination and of this, Shs24bn will go towards purchase of the vaccines, while Shs2.8bn for procurement of powder free vaccination gloves and shs7.1bn will go to National Medical stores to cover costs of handling the vaccines.
Documents before the Committee also indicate that Shs84.032Bn that was meant for the purchase of Covid-29 vaccines was removed from the budget of National Medical Stores and allocated to other sectors.
Aceng also gave an update on the vaccination exercise pointing out that as at 10th April 2022, efforts to vaccinate 22million people and control the pandemic, minimized deaths are now at 68% for the first dose and 43% of the 22m target are fully vaccinated.
In the 2022/2023 national budget, the Health Sector has been allocated Shs3.588Trn and of this, Shs1.035Trn will go towards payment of wages, Shs928.400Bn non wage recurrent and Shs270.509 development and Shs1.353Trn will come from external funding.
