Abstract:
The relevance of foreign aid on health outcome among developing economies cannot be underestimated. Foreign aids, especially health related aids proved to important determinant ofprogress in key healthcare indicators among aid recipient nations. Apart from other causes of mortality in Nigeria which ranged from crisis to epidemics, the statistical evidence of under-five mortality rate (U5M) of about 104 per 1000 live births in 2016 calls for investigation. Others are the fact thatunder-five mortality reduced from 158 to 120 per 1000 live births between 2011 and 2016, maternal mortality stood at 814 per 100,000 in 2015 and life expectancy (LEXP) only rose to 55.2 years average with males 54.7 years and females 55.7 years in 2018. These and other indicators propelled examination of impact of foreign aids (ODA) on LEXP and child mortality rate in Nigeria.To achieve this goal, the study sought to determine the effect of ODA on LEXP, estimate the impact of ODA on child mortality rate and examine the influence of government external debt (EXD) on LEXP and child mortality rate in Nigeria.Annual time series data were sourced from Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin 2015 and World Bank Development Indicators 2017 and covered from 1981 to 2016. The data were subjected to both descriptive analysis and dynamic regression technique of autoregressive distributive lag (ARDL) model with the aid of Eviews 9.0 econometric software. Among key results of the study were the evidence of significant positive impact of ODA on LEXP, poor contribution of ODA to reduction in child mortality rate and simultaneous deterioration of ODA’s impact on LEXP and child mortality rate in the presence of incurred external debt.The above key findings led to the study’s conclusion and recommendations, which includes that ODA could be useful in government’s effort to improve health outcomes in Nigeria. However, recipient of ODA calls for caution as the attached conditionality could reverse its expected benefits. Lastly, government spendingon education (GSE) and health (GSH) were found to be relatively below recommended benchmark by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and World Health Organisation (WHO), hence the need for improvement.
