THE Nigerian government has claimed that the nation is rapidly becoming a hub for international patients seeking quality healthcare.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Ali Pate, stated this while briefing State House correspondents on Tuesday, February 4, after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.
“You can see that gradually, piece by piece, we have been building our health infrastructure, but also at a higher level in the teaching hospitals.
“People are now beginning to come to Nigeria from the region to receive quality healthcare. This is already happening, including people from far away, places like the United Kingdom and United States,” the minister said.
He stressed that the ‘transformation’ was a realisation of President Bola Tinubu’s promise to upgrade Nigeria’s health system.
“We need to sustain it, we’re investing, and we will continue to invest in that direction,” Pate, who also announced the ratification of the African Medicines Agency Treaty by FEC, said.
While the minister’s claim could be true, The ICIR has yet to independently verify the number of such patients.
The ICIR has over the years reported that many hospitals in Nigeria suffered from severe infrastructural deficits, power failures and shortages of health practitioners, among others.
Just two weeks ago, the Medical and Dental Consultants Association (MDCAN) raised the alarm over the exodus of medical consultants from Nigeria.
The group said over 1,300 medical consultants migrated from the nation in five years, leaving the country with only 6,000 consultants, serving nearly 220 million people, including international patients.
Investigations by The ICIR indicate that hundreds of hospitals, particularly primary healthcare centres in Nigeria continue to grapple with basic needs and critical infrastructure challenges.
One of The ICIR’s reports detailed how inadequate manpower crippled primary healthcare in Nasarawa, one of Nigeria’s 36 states.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) suggested that Nigeria required at least 300 radiotherapy machines to address gaps in cancer treatment in the country effectively. As of 2019, only four cancer treatment centres were functional in the country, the National Medical Association (NMA) reportedly said.
Two years later, in 2021, the Federal government approved 12 additional hospitals for chemotherapy.
Several reports by The ICIR in 2022 showed how consultants in many Nigerian hospitals fled the nation for greener pastures.
Some of the reports can be found here, here and here.
One of the challenges facing Nigeria health sectors is poor financing. The Head of States and Governments of countries on the African continent agreed that 15 per cent of the budgets of African Union members should be allocated to the health sector. Nigeria has yet to fulfil this agreement since 2001 when it was made in Abuja.
Consequently, the nation’s health systems have been riddled with some of the poorest data on maternal and child health globally. The country also parades some of the worst statistics on communicable diseases namely HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and hepatitis, and non-communicable ailments including cancer, diabetes, and hypertension.
Meanwhile, Tinubu’s administration is approving more funds for the nation’s health sector. In addition to the N2.48 trillion he allocated to the health sector in the proposed 2025 appropriation bill (the highest ever for the sector), the president is also funding the sector with an additional $1 billion.
Speaking on the African Medicines Agency Treaty approved by FEC, Pate said the project, originally conceived at the 32nd Africa Union Heads of State and Government meeting in Addis Ababa in February 2019, had already been signed by 37 AU member states, with 26 ratifying it.
According to him, the treaty aims to harmonise standards and ensure safe, quality-assured medical services across the continent.
“So far, 37 member states of the African Union have signed the treaty, and 26 have ratified it. The Federal Executive Council today directed that the treaty be ratified by Nigeria and directed us to take all actions to give effect to the treaty,” he said.
The minister noted that the agreement would also increase access to safe, quality-assured medical services and use common standards across the continent towards a Pan-African regulatory framework.
“And the import of this is, as we move in this direction, what we produce as part of our value chain expansion will have a much wider market.
“So, we’re expanding the market for products that can be manufactured here, just as other African countries; what they manufacture, we can also trade with them,” he said.
The minister added that alongside the treaty’s ratification, the FEC approved major investments in diagnostic infrastructure.
According to him, six contracts were approved to equip several key medical institutions with advanced diagnostic equipment – including three magnetic resonance imaging machines and two CT scan devices at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital in Akwa Ibom State, and the Federal Medical Centre in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Others are Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile Ife, the Federal Medical Centre in Keffi (Nasarawa State), the Modibbo Adamawa University Teaching Hospital in Yola, Adamawa State, and the Federal Teaching Hospital in Kebbi.
“This investment in critical diagnostic infrastructure is part of a broader effort to expand Nigeria’s health system capacity, ensuring that our tertiary institutions can offer world-class medical services,” he said.
