Healthcare in Nigeria
[2] Healthcare delivery in Nigeria has experienced progressive deterioration as a result of under-investment by successive governments, to effectively solve several problems that have existed in the sector over many years.
But low wages and poor workplace culture have forced hundreds of thousands of them to flee to Europe and America.
[11] On May 19, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the National Health Insurance Authority Bill 2022 into law “to ensure coverage of 83 million poor Nigerians who cannot afford to pay premiums as recommended by the Lancet Nigeria Commission”.
[12] In 2024, the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) announced an increase in healthcare costs, introducing a 60% rise in capitation and a 40% adjustment in Fee-For-Service (FFS) fees, reportedly due to healthcare cost inflation and the need to maintain quality of care, even as the adjustment could also impose a financial strain on patients and employers.
[18] In cooperation with the University of Nigeria, it collects DNA swabs from people who might want to help a person with leukemia, lymphoma, or sickle cell disease to find a compatible donor for a life-saving bone marrow transplant.
Some believed that breast cancer could be the fault of evil spirits and many women chose to use a complementary and alternative medicine alongside standard treatment.
The regulation was also meant to limit the manufacture and import of fake or sub-standard drugs and to curtail false advertising.
[30] Several major regulatory failures have produced international scandals: In 2024, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, lamented the pervasive corruption in the health sector and the country at large, such as a case where therapeutic food donated for children was diverted and the matter reported to police.
In 2023, the pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi ceased their local drug manufacturing, citing various operational challenges.
[34] In 2024, amidst a record 27-year high inflation rate of 28.92% and a significant decline in the value of the Naira,[35] the cost of antibiotics witnessed a more than tenfold increase in price.
[37] Healthcare in Nigeria is influenced by different local and regional factors that impact the quality or quantity present in one location.
However, this is largely a result of the level of state and local government involvement and investment in healthcare programs and education.
[38] Survey shows looming brain drain in Nigeria's health sector in the rising trend of emigration of healthcare personnel – physicians, pharmacists, nurses, laboratory scientists, physiotherapists and many others have difficulty getting into paid employment.
The underlying issues for this may include the political dimension, with some states unwilling to recruit large numbers of workers from other parts of the country as an act of deliberate policy, preferring to employ their own indigenes, or, where there is a short-fall, employ foreigners mostly from North Africa on short-term contracts.
Subsequently, a Human Resource for Health Strategic Plan 2008–2012 was drawn up to guide implementation of the policy at all levels.
As the era of Sustainable Development Goals commences and the target of 2030 begins to come into focus, the statistics are far from providing reassurance.
The brain drain cuts across all healthcare professionals; thousands of Nigerian pharmacists and nurses are practicing in the UK and USA as well.
[42] Although consumers today have widespread access to various TM/CAM treatments and therapies, they often do not have enough information on what to check when using TM/CAM in order to avoid unnecessary harm.
