The health policy commission of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has held a web-based session to address the challenges facing the nation’s health sector with a focus on attracting funding.
The session had the theme: “Attracting Funding for The Nigerian Health Sector: A Guide for Investors, Promoters and Analysts Outlining the Opportunity, Financing Options and Challenges.” Various industry experts, including those from the NESG took turns to underscore the urgent need to retool existing measures and fix the challenges facing the sector.
Papers presenters at the event highlighted the challenges of healthcare financing by examining significant business opportunities in the Nigerian healthcare sector. It also uncovered the challenges faced by investors and solutions for overcoming these challenges towards encouraging investment and better health for the population.
A member of the steering committee of NESG’s health policy commission, Dr Tinuola Akinbolagbe said the focus is on innovative measures and rising healthcare demands and will aim to identify homegrown solutions that encourage ownership and promotion of sustainability.
Dr Akinbolagbe revealed that the paper also discusses significant business opportunities and financing opportunities available and proposes ways to mitigate challenges faced regarding healthcare financing.
A member of NESG’s HPC, Dr Obinna Nnewuihe said the aim is to identify the challenges and opportunities in financing healthcare and the steps to go from challenging to leveraging opportunities. “Lots of opportunities exist in healthcare considering the strong young policy owing population. There is consistent demand in Nigeria, but the sector is highly regulated worldwide, and the government has a huge role to play from access to capital and regulation that ensures the sector’s development,” Dr Nnewuihe stated.
Dr Ola Brown, said the healthcare industry globally has attracted more investors regardless of location. She stated that healthcare is counter-cyclical; the sector remains stable during economic downturns as people prioritise health and continually resist economic shock and inflation, thus offering stability that potentially attracts investors.
Brown said the opportunities inherent in the healthcare sector, including a growing population, expanding middle class and rising demand for healthcare, noted that AfCFTA will also increase intra-regional trade, increase local medicine production and employment opportunities.
Another member of the committee, Dr Richardson Ajayi, said there is a need to focus on an environment that attracts favourable investment. He noted that the forces affecting profitability work against the industry as there is insufficient money driving healthcare growth.
In her closing remarks, facilitator of the NESG health policy commission, Dr Mories Atoki stated that the papers presented had helped in understanding the opportunities within the health sector and the Nigerian consumer market and provided insights into ways of mitigating existing challenges to fundraising in the health sector.
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