FactCheck: Is Over D5 Billion Allocated to Health in 2025?
Screengrab: Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay on QTV’s This Morning Show
By Fatoumata Jaiteh
Claim: “If you look at the current budget, which is called the programme-based budget, how much is allocated for Healthcare? Over D5 billion dalasis. In fact, it takes the chunk of the budget.”
Source: Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services
Verdict: MISLEADING
Speaking on the widely followed “This Morning Show” on QTV on the 20th of November 2024, the Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, claimed that “over D5 billion” is allocated to healthcare in the 2025 budget.
Dr. Ceesay said, "If you look at the current budget, which is called the programme-based budget, how much is allocated for Healthcare? Over D5 billion dalasis. In fact, it takes the chunk of the budget.”
Watch video from 1 hour 5 seconds: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/13s4FS1N8Q/
Fact-Check: To verify the Minister’s claim, our reporter got hold of the 2025 Draft Budget and assessed the government’s allocation to the Ministry of Health in the last 5 years.
According to the 2025 Draft Budget, the government allocated over D4.8 billion to the Ministry of Health, which translates to only 9% of the overall budget for “All Funds”. All Funds includes loans, grants, and government local funds.
Comparing how much of a “chunk” has been allocated to health, we find that health is the fourth largest allocation from the budget when looking at All Funds. The two biggest allocations go to the National Debt Service (D11 billion) and the Ministry of Agriculture (D6.1 billion).
It’s important to note that the estimates referred to by Dr. Ceesay are just estimates of what the government plans to spend on healthcare. But how much does the government actually spend on health as compared to the amount it approves?
Our budget research shows that the government usually spends much less than what it approves for healthcare. This indicates that even though D4.8 billion has been approved for the Ministry of Health for 2025, it’s very unlikely that this exact amount will actually be spent on healthcare.
The above graph shows how much the government has approved for health and the actual allocations (what is actually spent). It can be seen that in 2023, the government allocated over D3.5 billion to health; however, that year it only spent 53% (D1.88 billion) of the allocated amount on health.
Likewise, in 2022, the government allocated D3.7 billion on health but only spent half (D1.86 billion) of the allocated amount on health.
Also in 2021, the government approved D3 billion to be spent on healthcare but actually spent 56% (D1.69 billion) on healthcare that year.
This demonstrates that even though close to D5 billion (not over) may have been allocated to health in 2025, it’s unlikely that all of this will actually be spent on health.
Verdict: The Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services claim that D5 billion has been allocated to healthcare is not accurate. In fact, D4.8 billion was allocated to healthcare in the 2025 Draft Budget. Therefore, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay’s claim is deemed to be MISLEADING.
In addition to this, Dr. Ceesay claimed that healthcare “takes the chunk of the Budget” without specifying if it’s a large or small chunk. The 2025 Draft Budget highlights that only 9.1% of the budget has been allocated to healthcare, ranking it as the fourth highest allocation behind the National Debt Service (20.8%), Agriculture (11.6%), and Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (9.6%).
Note: Parliamentary amendments to the Draft 2025 Budget neither reduced nor increased the allocation for the Ministry of Health.
This FactCheck was first published by FactCheckGambia.org in the link: https://factcheckgambia.org/fact-check-is-over-d5-billion-allocated-to-health-in-2025/
