ABUJA: According to report, NigerIa is said to lose about 1 to 3 billion naira annually from its citizens seeking medical care abroad.
According to Medical Tourism Association’s Research, Surveys and Statistics, Nigeria is said to lose about 1 and 3 billion every year due to the medical tourism culture.
The Nigerian Minister for Health, Professor Adewole Folorunso, before being appointed Minister, during a ministerial screening in Abuja, confirmed that Nigeria has “lost between 1 and 3 billion naira yearly to medical tourism”.
The Medical Association, according to its annual report in 2014, disclosed that according to the Indian High Commission, Indian hospitals received 18,000 Nigerians on medical visas in 2012, and about 47 per cent of outbound medical tourism from Nigeria go to India, spending about $260 million USD.Estimations show that by 2015, India will receive about half a million medical tourists annually.
Recently Nigeria is said to be at the top of the medical tourism list of Africans going to India for medical attention.
The country leads by 42.4 per cent, while other African countries among those involved in this trend are South Africa, Tanzania, Egypt and so on.
It is also reported that India’s pharmaceutical exports to Africa increased from $247.64 million in 2000 to a whopping $3.5 billion in 2014.
Furthermore, in a 2013 statistics by the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), out of 275,271 tourist arrivals in India, Nigeria accounted for 34,522. Out of 34.522 Nigerians, 42.4 per cent were there for medical purposes.
This reasons are usually hinged on a number of factors like the lack of appropriate and modern facilities in our tertiary centres, inadequate human capacity development that matches the modern technological advancement, incessant work disruption occasioned by workers’ strikes, lack of information on facilities and services available in the country, the tendency to patronise foreign goods and services, as well as unethical commercialisation of referral system.
A tourism expert has explained medical tourism as undertaking a trip as part of medical care, going to that destination to seek medical care, to seek for health services provided in that area. This can be done for many reasons. The reason for the trip is principally to get treated and pay for health services.
“Medical tourism is becoming an obstinate situation, a second nature to Nigerians who can afford its expenses. We hear of high profile government officials patronising hospitals abroad, these are not to mention several other Nigerians, whose stories have not been documented by the media, leaving the country for preferred medical treatment overseas.
While there is no law that states that Nigerians cannot go on medical tourism, or be treated in their preferred hospitals/medical facilities, it is worrisome to many because of the capital flight caused by medical tourism. With the increase in numbers annually, and the capital lost to the country, what is the federal government doing to improve on health facilities here in Nigeria so as to develop the country’s economy?
“The former Minister of Health, Professor OnyebuchiChukwu attributed the lack of standard medical facilities in the country for medical tourism, stating that by Private Public Partnership arrangement, the government intends to transform some centres. The years go by, and the question asked is this; ‘What is government doing to improve on those centres and the much needed medical expertise to prevent this increasing capital flight?’
Singapore, Nigeria trade volume hits N846b
SINGAPORE: The trade volume between Nigeria and Singapore reached N846bn from 2011 to 2015, while the absolute balance of trade...