Expenditure on health services expected to rise to Sh227b in current fiscal year
By George.Kebaso, May 4, 2023The overall expenditure on health services is expected to hit Sh227.2 billion in the current fiscal year.
This will see the budget increase by Sh30.7 billion, which is about 9.4 per cent from Sh196.5 billion in the financial year 2021/22.
In a survey released yesterday by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the national government’s expenditure on health services may record a high of Sh117.4 billion compared to Sh88.2 billion in the 2021/22 fiscal period.
Ironically, the County Governments which ordinarily should be handling much of the health burden in the country spent a total of Sh108.3 billion in 2021/22, while that expenditure is expected to rise by a paltry Sh1.5 billion to Sh109.8 billion in the financial year ending in June, a 1.4 per cent rise. This was a marginal decline from Sh108.8 billion in 2020/21.
“The ratio of National Government expenditure on health to total National Government expenditure is anticipated to rise to 4.0 per cent in 2022/23,” said KNBS Director-General MacDonald Obudho who released the survey yesterday.
National government
The national government spent Sh40.2 billion on wages, salaries and supplements; purchases of goods and services on health services, the same expected to increase by 23.4 per cent to Sh49.6 billion. However, on a positive note, development expenditure is expected to increase by 41.3 per cent from Sh48.0 billion in 2021/22 to Sh67.8 billion in 2022/23. Most of the devolved units’ recurrent expenditure on health services rose by 1.3 per cent to Sh91.8 billion in 2021/22 despite the health burden counties are struggling to address. However, this is projected to decline insignificantly by 0.9 per cent to Sh91.0 billion in 2022/23.
“In 2021/22, development expenditure on health services by County Governments declined by 9.8 per cent to Sh16.5 billion, but on a positive note, it is expected to increase to Sh18.8 billion in 2022/23,” Obudho said.