The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has reported that the foreign medical expenses of Nigerians from January to September 2022 stood at N294.6 million, representing a drop of 52% when compared to the $612.98 million expended by them on foreign medical bills in the corresponding period of the previous year.
The apex bank, in its just published data on the overseas medical expenses by Nigerians, which is about N135.8 billion based on official exchange rate of N461/$1, stated that the Q1-Q3 2022 figure was the lowest spending by Nigerians since year 2016 when only $7.14 million was spent by them on medical bills abroad.
The data from the CBN and other official sources, further reflected that the number of Nigerians embarking on medical tourism had continued to drop over the past few years, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, which caused the death of millions of people globally.
For instance, the apex bank noted that the nation’s foreign medical expenditure dropped from $2.56 billion in 2019 to $1 billion in 2020 as many Nigerians were discouraged from travelling overseas for medical check-up and treatments as a result of the Covid-19 scourge.
Experts have attributed the penchant of rich Nigerians for foreign health services partly to the very poor state of the nation’s health care system, especially the primary health care subsector, due to low funding of the sector over the decades.
Despite the increasing need for improved funding of the health sector, the Federal Government in the N21.8 trillion approved 2023 budget only provided N1.08 trillion for the Health Sector, representing a mere 4.93% of the total budget. In 2022, only N714 billion was allocated to the sector.
But then, out of the N1.08 trillion provided for the sector in the 2023 fiscal year, N614.18 billion was earmarked for personnel cost; N16.5 billion for overhead; while just N445.16 billion was earmarked for capital expenditure, the most critical area to improved health services for the people.
