Measuring the Welfare Impact of Public Expenditurer on Primary Healthcare Services in Rural Nigeria

Abstract

In this study, attempt has been made to measure the welfare impact of public expenditure on primary healthcare services in rural Nigeria employing the benefit-incidence approach. Primary and secondary data were generated from various healthcare centres and samples selected from various localities in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta state. From the sample selected, households were decomposed into non-poor, moderately poor and core poor. An analysis of the data depicts that the non-poor benefited more from the public primary healthcare services. The low benefit accruing to the poor group is attributable to their relative inaccessibility to access public healthcare in terms of drugs and consultation. There is therefore the need for proper implementation of primary healthcare policies to make them more pro-poor.

Keywords: Public expenditure, Healthcare services, Welfare impact, Benefit-incidence analysis