Female Schooling, Public Health Expenditure And Maternal Mortality In Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated the female schooling, public health expenditure, and maternal mortality trilogy in Nigeria from 1990 to 2023. Drawing on Grossman’s health capital model, the research investigated how increased investment in women’s education and government health spending impacts maternal health outcomes. Using ARDL estimation technique, the result revealed that public health spending reduces maternal death by 0.43 unit and 4.05 unit both in the short and long term, respectively. Similarly, increase in female secondary school enrolment by 1% reduces maternal mortality by 0.13 unit in the short term, while in the long run maternal mortality reduces by 7%. Furthermore, in contradiction to what is expected, increase in female schooling moderates the impact of health spending on increasing maternal mortality rate. In conclusion, improvement in public health expenditure and female schooling distinctively could lead to reduction in maternal mortality. Therefore, the study recommends that to achieve target 3.1 which aimed at reducing maternal mortality to be less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) there is the need for distinct policy initiatives to expand female schooling and increase public health spending, in other, government should increase spending on the health sector and also encourage girls to go to school.