News

Nigeria Loses Over N400bn On Annual Basis To Medical Tourism – Buhari

Published

5 years ago

April 4, 2019

The President said the government has shown strong commitment in the revitalisation of the health sector

President Muhammadu Buhari has stated that the inability of the government to address various health challenges has resulted in increasing medical tourism in which Nigeria loses over N400 billion on annual bases.

The President stated this on Thursday on the occasion of the inauguration of Senior Executive Course 41, 2019 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies Kuru, Plateau State with the theme “Funding Universal Health Care Delivery in Nigeria.”
The President said the government has shown strong commitment in the revitalisation of the health sector adding that in spite of this, the sector was still characterised by low response to public health emergencies, inability to combat an outbreak of deadly diseases and mass migration of medical personnel out of the country.

“Government has shown strong commitment in the revitalisation of the health sector. These efforts notwithstanding, our health sector is still characterized by low response to the public health emergencies, inability to combat the outbreak of deadly diseases and mass migration of medical personnel out of the country. This has resulted in increasing medical tourism by Nigerians in which Nigeria loses N400 billion on an annual basis,” he said.

The President who was represented by Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State said his government had in January this year flagged off Primary Healthcare Revitalisation Programme with the aim of having 10,000 functional primary healthcare facilities with at least one functional healthcare facility in every political ward across the country.