Al-Hikmah University Journal

This study examined the impact of government health expenditure on health outcomes in Nigeria. Time series secondary data were sourced from the Central Bank of Nigeria and World Development Indicators for the period 1988-2021. The dependent variable was Malaria Incidence Rate proxied to health outcomes. While the independent variables were Government Health Expenditure, Government Education Expenditure and Out of Pocket Expenditure. The study adopted the Autoregressive Distributed Lagged Model (ARDL) to estimate the model for the study. The bound cointegration test showed the existence of a long-run relationship between the malaria incidence rate and the explanatory variables. Findings from the Error Correction Model showed that government spending on health has an insignificant negative impact on malarial incidence. However, government education spending has a significant negative impact on malaria incidence. The long-run model revealed a significant positive relationship between out-of-pocket spending by households and the malaria incidence rate. Based on the findings, the study recommends that the government should improve the availability and accessibility of healthcare facilities. The government should foster collaboration between the health and education sectors. Health education should be integrated into schools training teachers and students on malaria prevention.