NAIROBI, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Kenya is considering issuing a social bond to fund its universal health care scheme, a government official said on Tuesday.
Rashid Aman, chief administrative secretary, Ministry of Health told a forum in Nairobi that the launch of the green bond market earlier this year provided a fertile ground and impetus to leverage on private capital to fund government projects.
"As part of increasing domestic resources for health, the government together with innovative health stakeholders are exploring the feasibility of launching social impact bonds in health to provide an opportunity to leverage private equity while at the same time promoting the social good," said Aman during the Commercial Bank of Africa sixth economic forum on the status of the health sector in Kenya.
The event brought together a panel of experts drawn from the health sector to identify areas of improvement and the contributions of the private sector in enabling the provision of quality affordable universal healthcare.
Aman said that one of the elements that the universal health coverage is intended to address is the high out of pocket expenditure in the country.
According to the Ministry of Health, Kenyan households spent approximately 118 billion shillings (1.14 billion U.S. dollars) in out of pocket health expenditure.
The government official noted that the number of Kenyans who slide into poverty due to catastrophic health expenditures associated with non communicable diseases is increasing.
The east African nation also plans to put in place financial and non-financial incentives to promote local manufacturing of pharmaceuticals products.
