To drive growth in Nigeria’s healthcare sector and reduce brain drain, medical workers should have tax free incomes, Akin Oyediran, managing director of Jubilee Syringe, has said.
“There will be no brain drain if there are no brains in Nigeria but we must put in place incentives to retain them,” Oyediran said at the ongoing Africa Business Convention 2022.
According to the British General Medical Council, Nigeria saw 805 medical doctors migrate to the United Kingdom between July and December 2021.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended 1 doctor per 600 people in every country but at 1 doctor per 5000 people, Nigeria has one of the lowest doctor-patient ratios in the world.
It is no surprise that Africa’s biggest economy has one of the lowest human capital index in the world, at (0.36) its ranks 168th out of the 174 countries surveyed in 2021, only better than Liberia (0.32), Mali (0.32), South Sudan (0.31), Chad (0.30) and Niger (0.29).
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Leveraging appropriate technology, training and research have also been pointed out by the experts as crucial to developing the health sector.
“Our healthcare providers need training but we need to solve the problem of brain drain. There is no point training people who will leave,” said Tinuola Akinbolagbe, CEO, Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria.
“Africa will also need appropriate technology if our health sector will thrive,” Akinbolagbe said.
She also pointed out that the private sector must be involved in making the health care system better while the government should create an enabling environment.
Oyediran also explained that there are lots of opportunities in the health sector as the majority of the health equipment used in Nigeria are imported from other countries.
According to him, over 99 percent of the country’s use of medical devices and equipment are imported from foreign countries.
Akinbolagbe also stressed that good health is an outcome of economic development but good health is also a foundation for economic development.
“When the healthcare system is good, citizens will be more productive, save and invest more and this will drive growth,” she said.
