Africa loses $10bn to medical tourism annually — NMA
The Nigerian Medical Association has raised concerns that about $10 billion is lost yearly to outbound medical tourism in Africa, with Nigeria accounting for $2 billion. The president of the association, Prof Bala Mohammed Audu, disclosed this at the association’s Healthcare and Medical Expo in Abuja, with the theme: “Reversing Medical Tourism: Africans Investing in […]
Nigeria Medical Association (NMA)
The Nigerian Medical Association has raised concerns that about $10 billion is lost yearly to outbound medical tourism in Africa, with Nigeria accounting for $2 billion.
The president of the association, Prof Bala Mohammed Audu, disclosed this at the association’s Healthcare and Medical Expo in Abuja, with the theme: “Reversing Medical Tourism: Africans Investing in Africa.”
He said developed countries would visit Nigeria to recruit doctors, trained and practising in the country, while political elites also travel to those countries to seek medical services that are available at their own doorsteps due to lack of awareness.
According to Audu, the fact that the political elite in Nigeria seek health care in other parts of the world does mean that those services are not available in the country.
He pointed out that in order to achieve the kind of high-end medical services that are of global standard, Nigeria needed to invest and create an enabling environment in terms of health financing to make the health care industry in Nigeria as competitive it is obtainable in other parts of the world.
The chancellor of the Ekiti State University, Dr Tunji Olowolafe, in his keynote address said that Nigeria and Africa could not reverse medical tourism without deliberate investments in knowledge production, research and medical education to strengthen local capacity. He said investment in faculty development and modern training would enable doctors to compete globally, while remaining locally relevant, adding that Nigeria’s medical education already commands respect across international health care systems.
Olowolafe noted that although brain drain had weakened local health care, it also validated the quality of Nigerian medical training, urging increased investment in education to retain and multiply skilled professionals.
(NAN)
He stressed that Africa must evolve from being a market for foreign medical solutions to a producer of innovative breakthroughs through collaboration among universities, associations and private sector investors.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr Iziaq Salako, said more than 30 per cent of Nigeria’s annual budget equivalent was lost to medical tourism, calling it a severe economic and forex drain.
Salako commended the NMA for leading the conversation, noting that the Tinubu administration was implementing strategies to promote local medical services and attract inbound medical travel to Nigeria. (NAN)