ABUJA — The Deaf Women Aloud Initiative (DWAI) has called on the six Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to establish dedicated budget lines for disability-inclusive healthcare as part of efforts to improve access to health services for persons with disabilities.
The call was made at a two-day capacity-building workshop on disability-inclusive health budgeting organised by DWAI in Abuja, where stakeholders stressed the need to integrate disability needs into the councils’ 2027 health budgets.
Representing the FCT Mandate Secretary for Health Services and Environment, Dr. Adedopeyin Olanrewaju, Dr. Aderonke Adedeji said the workshop was timely as the FCT prepares its 2027 Annual Operational Plan. She noted that persons with disabilities continue to face barriers to healthcare, including inaccessible facilities, inadequate disability-sensitive services and communication challenges between deaf patients and healthcare workers.
Adedeji disclosed that the FCT Primary Health Care Board had begun discussions on training frontline health workers in sign language and disability-sensitive service delivery. She also called for institutional structures that would support dedicated funding for disability inclusion, stressing that healthcare access for persons with disabilities should be treated as a right rather than charity.
DWAI Executive Director, Hellen Beyioku-Alase, said a baseline assessment conducted across the six Area Councils found that none had a dedicated budget line for disability inclusion in healthcare. She expressed concern that disability-related interventions were often limited to charitable donations, including wheelchairs, food and cash, instead of being integrated into sustainable public healthcare planning.
Presenting the assessment findings, DWAI Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Collins Joseph, disclosed that 60 per cent of the councils assessed had no specific budget lines for disability, while 67 per cent made their budgets available only upon request. The assessment also found no budgetary provision for sign language interpreters, with 47 per cent of disability-related interventions reportedly based largely on charity.
Speaking on behalf of the Disability Rights Fund, its West Africa Programme Manager, Theophilus Odaudu, urged government officials to translate disability rights laws and policy commitments into concrete budgetary allocations, warning that legislation alone would not improve the lives of persons with disabilities without adequate funding and implementation.
Stakeholders also identified the Basic Health Care Provision Fund as a potential avenue for financing accessible healthcare facilities, sign language interpretation, assistive equipment and disability-sensitive training. They called for improved budget transparency and the inclusion of persons with disabilities in community-level monitoring and accountability structures.
As the FCT and its Area Councils prepare their 2027 plans, DWAI urged authorities to institutionalise disability-inclusive healthcare funding, insisting that accessibility and reasonable accommodations must become essential components of public health services rather than depend on donations or the goodwill of individual political office holders.
Inclusive News Network reports that the initiative seeks to ensure that persons with disabilities can access healthcare services equitably, independently and with dignity.
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