Attainment of 70 years life expectancy by 2020 is one of the millennium development goals in Nigeria. This study examined the socio-economic determinants of life expectancy in Nigeria using data from 1980-2011. Judging from the endogeneity feature of the variables, A VAR and VECM frameworks were employed. Socio-economic features were proxy by secondary school enrolment, government expenditure on health, per capita income, unemployment rate and the Naira foreign exchange rate. It was found that, the conventional socio-economic variables such as per capita income, education and government expenditure on health considered to be highly effective in determining life expectancy of developing countries are not significant in the case of Nigeria. The study however suggests that, life expectancy in Nigeria could be improved if attention is given to quality of government health expenditure, unemployment and measures to halt the depreciation of the Nigerian Naira against major foreign currency.

The slow reduction in maternal mortality rate in Sub-Saharan Africa is a serious cause for policy concern. This has not only retained the sub region in the web of leading region in high rate of reproductive health challenges but spells signals of poverty and low economic growth. The study therefore, examined the efficacy of health expenditure targeting and financial protection in reducing maternal mortality in 44 Sub-Saharan Africa countries. The study adopts fixed effect panel data modelling technique. Results show that financial protection is correctly signed but not statistically significant while relative health expenditure targeting is both correctly signed and statistically significant in reducing maternal mortality. Recommendation is that health expenditure should generally be increased so as to increase the slope of decrease in maternal mortality rate in Sub-Saharan Africa and health expenditure should be more targeted against GDP as common denominator.