Health: Entrepreneur Calls For Bold Reforms To Halt Systemic Collapse

DR. Richard Ajayi, entrepreneur and healthcare advocate, says Nigeria’s healthcare sector faces imminent collapse unless urgent structural reforms are implemented.

Ajay said this in an interview on Sunday in Abuja.

According to him, Nigeria spends less than six per cent of its national budget on healthcare, far below the 15 per cent target agreed under the 2001 Abuja Declaration.

He, however, said that funding was not the only challenge in the sector, adding that even if the country doubled spending, without reforms, the gaps would remain.

He decried stark inequalities in the health workforce.

“Nigeria has just four doctors per 10,000 people, compared to 47 in Switzerland.

“While the country requires about 363,000 doctors, only 24,000 are currently practising locally.

“The situation is further worsened by migration, with 13,609 Nigerian health workers leaving for the UK in 2022 alone,” he said.

Ajayi described the situation as an urgent call for reform, proposing 10 key interventions to reimagine the sector.

These, he said include redefining government’s role from service provider to regulator, concessioning public hospitals to private operators under fair terms, redirecting funds into a truly national health insurance system, and deploying urgent care clinics nationwide.

Other recommendations include investing in infrastructure, strengthening workforce retention, adopting digital health tools, and positioning healthcare as a driver of economic development.

“Nigeria’s healthcare future will not be built by government alone or by the private sector alone.

“It will take partnership, regulation and bold mindset shifts.

“We must start reimagining healthcare for the Nigeria we are becoming, a country projected to reach 377 million people by 2050,” he said.

(NAN)