IN 2019, the World Bank reported that the average life expectancy globally, which is the estimated number of years people are expected to live, was 73.4 – 73 years and four months.
Although this was the global figure for the year, average life expectancy varies per country, with some ranking higher or lower than the global age.
While wealthy Asian and European countries ranked above the global average in 2019, poorer African countries ranked much lower.
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Countries like Japan, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein, which consistently top the list, had an average age of 84. In contrast, people in Nigeria and Chad, at the bottom of the list, were expected to live only up to about 53 years.
This is despite Nigeria’s goal to attain 70 years of life expectancy by 2020.
By 2021, global average life expectancy declined for the second straight year—the first being in 2020—as people were now only expected to live up to 71 years, according to the World Bank.
Despite the decline, countries like Japan have stayed above average, hovering between 84 and 85 years during the period, while others like Nigeria have remained at the bottom.
According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the top ten causes of death in Nigeria are health-related, with road injury being the only non-health-related cause of death in the country.
Some of the health issues include lower respiratory infections, malaria, tuberculosis, stroke, and neonatal and maternal conditions.
Of these issues, Nigeria accounted for 12 per cent of global stillbirths and maternal and neonatal deaths in 2023, second only to India, according to WHO.
Many of the victims of these health challenges mostly suffer as a result of inadequate access to healthcare, a problem that has continued to persist in the country.
Low life expectancy, inadequate access to health
Dorcas Olaniyi, a resident of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), recounted to The ICIR how the struggle to access healthcare led to the death of her child in 2022.
Olaniyi felt pains one morning in June 2022 and rushed to the neighbouring Primary Health Centre (PHC) at about 7:00 a.m., but the facility had not commenced operations for the day.
She returned two hours later, but the PHC remained closed, so she sought help at a local, privately owned hospital.
At the clinic, the doctor confirmed that she was in labour, but Olaniyi was made to wait till the evening before she was attended to.
“He came to visit me and told me the baby was fine and that I shouldn’t be worried,” she said.
But the longer she waited, the more pain she felt, and eventually, other people around her began to get worried, attracting the doctor’s attention.
“When the doctor couldn’t resist people’s agitation, he attended to me, but by then, I think the child had become so weak the child couldn’t come outside.
“I pushed and tried, but the child didn’t come outside until after many trials before he came out. At that time, he was not crying. He gave him an injection, but the child still didn’t cry; that was when the doctor said the child wasn’t okay. The placenta, too, didn’t come outside,” Olaniyi recounted.
Olaniyi is one of many Nigerians who have lost their loved ones or died as a result of the country’s poor health system.
While there is more access to healthcare in developed countries, Nigerians battle several limitations in the health sector, including an absence of hospitals or health centres in many communities or dilapidated structures in other cases.
Unlike many other developed countries, the country also has a shortage of medical staff.
For instance, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Japan has a doctor-to-patient ratio of 2.6 to 1,000 people, while Nigeria has less than 100,000 doctors serving over 200 million Nigerians.
This means that in Nigeria, there is less than one doctor for every 2,220 people, which falls short of WHO’s recommendation of at least one doctor for every 1000 patients.
This is despite Nigeria having nearly twice the population of Japan. While Japan has 122.7 million people, Nigeria has an estimated population of 228 million.
The shortage of medical staff is worsened by increased emigration due to unfavourable work conditions, which became so heightened that the United Kingdom placed Nigeria, along with other countries, on a red list, from which health workers will not be recruited without government permission.
How can Nigeria measure up?
One factor that enhances access to healthcare is health insurance, as it somewhat reduces out-of-pocket medical expenses.
In Nigeria, where more than half of the population lives in extreme poverty, only about three per cent of the population is captured under the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), according to a report by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
While Nigeria struggles to enrol a reasonable part of the population under this scheme, Japan already has 29 million people enrolled under its National Health Insurance System -about 24 per cent of its population.
Although not enough to guarantee adequate healthcare on its own, one step which can further ease access to health services and possibly improve life expectancy is to increase the number of citizens enrolled under its National Health Insurance Scheme.
Japan also allocated 30 per cent of its 2024 budget to social security, focusing more on its ageing population. Out of a total budget of $744 billion, $249 billion was set aside for social security in the country.
Nearly half of the sum set aside is to be used for pension-related issues, which, on the contrary, has remained a longstanding issue for older citizens in Nigeria.
The ICIR has reported that many subnational governments in Nigeria withhold pension payments from older citizens, sometimes for years at a time.
In some cases, retirees are denied their pensions due to mismanagement of funds or corruption. Yet, most governors are entitled to huge pensions after only serving in government for a maximum of eight years.
Many retired citizens in Nigeria have lost their lives or loved ones due to a lack of financial capacity to access healthcare and other basic needs and are confronted with hardships upon retirement, a situation which, if addressed, can lead to a better quality of life for older Nigerians.
Apart from health-related issues, many other socio-economic factors affect the life expectancy of people in a country.
According to a study published by the NCBI, a more even distribution of income and higher levels of education can have positive effects on life expectancy in a country.
The study also showed that in Nigeria, higher unemployment rates have adverse effects on life expectancy.
“Unemployment is an influential factor that needs necessary attention. In Nigeria where the demographic structure is such that, the youth constitutes the greater percentage of the population, the life expectancy of the population would be enhanced if employment could be raised,” the report read.
The study recommended that policies addressing the country’s socio-economic challenges be implemented, a step which can bring Nigeria closer to its life expectancy goal of 70 years.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.
Kehinde Ogunyale tells stories by using data to hold power into account. You can send him a mail at [email protected] or Twitter: Prof_KennyJames
