Health and healthcare
availability in any country is very vital because the health of the people in a
nation directly affects the quality of life they live. The healthcare industry
in Nigeria industry in consists of both public and private sectors. The private
sector controls over 65% of the Nigerian healthcare industry.
Healthcare service providers include
clinics, hospitals, elderly and residential care, psychiatric care, hospices,
ambulance services and the likes. This is a multibillion dollar sector whose steady
growth is currently driven by national economic development, increasing
consumer income and its resultant empowerment to afford health care services,
extended life expectancy, population growth, advancing medical technologies and
treatments and increase in shifting disease burden from communicable to
non-communicable in certain areas. Based on population alone, Nigeria has the
largest healthcare market in Africa. However, it also has less than the average
number of hospital beds per person in Africa. The population also suffers from diseases
of both developed and developing countries.
The few hospitals available are overcrowded
and ill-equipped to deal with complex medical issues and the growing demand for
healthcare in general. The private sector is very fragmented with several solo
practices. They do not have the funding required to provide large facilities
using cutting-edge technologies to offer highly efficient medical services. Hence,
more Nigerians have resorted to travelling abroad for medical attention. Currently,
Hygeia Nigeria Ltd and more recently Crystal Thorpe are the only hospital groups
(chains) present in Nigeria, others are solo practices. The lack of cutting
edge technologies has led to Nigerians seeking medical attention from countries
like Dubai, India, the Americas, South Africa and Europe.
In 2013, Nigerians spent about
$2billion in foreign hospitals on major surgeries including kidney, heart, cancer
and orthopaedic surgeries. 38,000 visas were issued to Nigerians for travel to
India in 2012 and 18,000 of these were for medical tourism which led to about
$260 million being spent on medical bills, about $15,000 per medical tourist.
Any medical practice(s) in Nigeria performing such surgeries to the high
efficiency and standards obtainable in other countries will undeniably attract
most of these medical tourists because they will make savings from costs of
transportation and accommodation. Also, every patient benefits from the love
and care they receive from family and friends therefore getting such treatments
in Nigeria will make that more possible. Specialist hospitals in Nigeria will also
attract patients from other West African countries as they also face the same
fate. The provision of ambulance services, elderly and residential care,
psychiatric care and hospices are also other healthcare services suffering from
highly inadequate investments.
Investors are also needed to set
up Medical Education and Training Institutes. Some universities in Nigeria
provide courses in medicine, nursing, pharmacy and paramedical sciences.
However, some of these institutions have been shut down because they did not
provide sufficient facilities, equipment or professionals to produce highly
efficient graduates. Only a few of the remaining ones are highly rated. Highly specialised
skills are rarely provided and so medical graduates resort to travelling abroad
to attend other medical schools in order to gain the specialist skills they
desire. This is also very expensive, which means only very few can afford it.
The Pharmaceutical sector is not
left out, there are currently about 130 pharmaceutical companies in the country
but only 9 are listed in the stock exchange. Common drugs produced are anti-malarial,
anti-retroviral, vaccines, antibiotics, oncology drugs and diabetic drugs and
anti-helminthic drugs. Nigeria is still heavily reliant on countries like India
for the importation of drugs to satisfy its growing demand. The pharmaceutical
sector is quite safe for investment, thanks to the efforts of the Nigerian
Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). They inspect
factories periodically, allocate registration numbers and check authenticity to
prevent counterfeits.
Finally, there is a general
increase among the middle and upper class for healthcare options and insurance
services. This has led to a projected 6% growth over the next 5 years in health
insurance. This is definitely a good time to invest in this sector.
Olives Consultancy Services assist investors looking to invest in the Nigerian markets in a variety of ways.
Please visit our website www.olivesconsulting.co.uk
for more information or send us an email on admin@olivesconsultancyservices.co.uk.
We have offices both in the UK and in Nigeria. We will be happy to read from
you and answer your questions too. Please feel free to comment below. Many
thanks from the Olives team.
