Medical tourism in Nigeria
An expanding economy, increasing disposable income and a growing middle class are responsible for the increasing expenditure on health services. In 2010, N1.2 trillion was spent on health services.
This increase can be seen in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which shows that healthcare spend rose by 3 percent to 30.4 index value in 2012, from 13.6 in 2003. The CPI, compiled by the National Bureau of Statistics, measures the changes in the price of a basket of consumer goods and services purchased by households. Because of new consumption habits, non-communicable diseases like cancer, hypertension, diabetes and obesity are on the increase.
What the CPI does not reflect, however, is that Nigerians are travelling abroad for healthcare services. Nigeria is not only consuming imported goods (rice, sugar and fish).
Official statistics for the first quarter of 2013 showed a 102 percent increase in the use of foreign exchange for invisible goods. A breakdown of invisible goods by sector showed that financial services consumed most of the forex, 80.5 percent. Also known as the service sector, it includes business services, communications, construction, and related engineering services, distribution, education, financial services, health, tourism, etc. For Nigerian “medical tourists”, India is a popular destination. The number of people and how much they spend give an idea of how much forex is lost to a service that can be provided in the country. Data provided by the Indian High Commission shows that 18,000 Nigerians travelled to India for medical purposes and are reported to have spent N41.6 billion ($260 million).
This trend shows Nigerians can afford and are willing to pay for value, even if they have to travel abroad to get it. More worryingly, it starkly shows the deteriorating quality of healthcare services and unequal access to decent services in Nigeria. Moreover, it is a failure of savvy business and smart government.
Nigeria is endowed with people and its location can make it the medical hub of West Africa. In Johor, Malaysia, private investors and government (state and federal authorities) are developing EduCity on 240 hectares of land. Nigeria can take advantage of these factors. Some may argue that the lack of capacity will hinder managing such a scale.
Malaysia’s EduCity has attracted diverse education institutes that want to build local campuses, e.g., Newcastle University of Medicine. Other institutions are the Netherlands Maritime Institute of Technology; the University of Southampton; the University of Reading; and the Johann Cruyff Institute for Sports Studies. These institutions, especially the universities, will offer degrees for a single course – Newcastle will only offer degrees in medicine while students interested in engineering will be admitted to the University of Southampton.
Cost need not be an issue. As India has proven, the cost of offering medical services need not be high. Indians like Devi Shetty, a cardiac surgeon, have mastered the ability to deliver high value care at low cost. Shetty’s chain of hospitals applies specialisation and mass-production techniques to provide efficient and cheap heart surgeries.
Such a project, modelled after the IITA campus in Ibadan, could be a concrete way to lure Nigerian professionals in diaspora. Their impact on the lives of Nigerians and the development of the economy will be most profound.