Effectiveness of External Financing on HealthInfrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa Countries

Abstract

Healthcare systems in both the developed and developing worlds have been put under
unprecedented strain as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with demand outstripping supply
while health facilities have been grossly inadequate most especially in SSA. However, most SSA
countries lack the resources and capability to provide the necessary health facilities needed to
enhance the population health and the entire health system, thus, there is need to complement this
with the alternative such as external financing. Because of this, this study examines the
effectiveness of external financing and other postulated determinants on health infrastructure in
SSA for the period of 2000 to 2018 by employing Panel-Corrected Standard Error (PCSE) for
analysis of the model. The results of the findings indicate that external financing as whole has
positive effects on health infrastructure, while private participation in infrastructure and official
development assistance have positive effects on health infrastructure, foreign direct investment
has negative effects. Consequently, the study recommends that both private participation in
infrastructure and official development assistance should be considered as the instruments for
promoting health infrastructure while the authorities involve should desist from using foreign
direct investment for promoting health infrastructure.