The $1.5 billion yearly spend on medical tourism has become a major concern to economic managers. The expectation is that a well-equipped health care sector will reduce the number of people seeking medical care abroad and cut dollar spendings on medical tourism. But that requires massive investments in the health care sector, which the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority has stepped in to undertake through the Healthcare Development and Investment Company (NHDIC). The agency’s projects have elevated the quality of domestic healthcare services to international standards to discourage medical tourism and grow the economy, writes Assistant Business Editor COLLINS NWEZE.
Key issues that have dominated the Nigeria’s economic landscape in the last decade include how to address lingering foreign exchange shortages and halt medical tourism spendings estimated at $1.5 billion yearly.
As these concerns raged, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and other multilateral institutions have advised economic managers on best approaches to tackle them.
While the CBN under Godwin Emefiele’s leadership advocates supporting the fundamentals of the economy through diversification from oil to non-oil sectors, the IMF and World Bank seek halt to capital controls to attract foreign capital investments.
The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) sees investments in critical sectors, especially health care sector, as prerequisite to halting medical tourism spendings, conserving forex and supporting domestic economy.
Obviously, the health care infrastructure has since independence, been underdeveloped with shortage of medical personnels and dilapidated facilities.
For instance, medical professionals in many specialised medical fields such as cardiology, oncology, nephrology, neurology, and orthopedics are in short supply, with only about 35,000 doctors despite needing 237,000.
With these challenges, Nigerians with health challenges travel to India, the Middle East, Europe, and other far-flung places to get care when they should receive treatment within the country. When this happens, patients also incur associated costs for logistics, accommodation, caregivers, and emotional support systems.
Worried by this development, the NSIA in 2018 set up the NSIA Healthcare Development and Investment Company (NHDIC) to transform the domestic healthcare sector and elevate the quality of service to international standards. Five years after, the implications of this decision have been far-reaching.
The NSIA’s approach was to consider the health care sector from a social impact and commercial returns standpoint.The Authority hinged its strategy on co-locating NSIA health care centres of excellence within federal tertiary medical institutions.
This approach would enable the Authority provide equipment, operatorship, working capital and technical expertise while the designated partner institutions would provide land, clinicians and expertise, and patient traffic.
Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NSIA Aminu Umar-Sadiq, said: “Over the past five years, we have built a strong and successful portfolio of health care service delivery centres. The transfer of the Enugu Centre for upgrade and rehabilitation is one of the steps in our journey towards making health care accessible and affordable for Nigerians. The centre is one of the 23 centres to be upgraded for oncology and diagnostic services.”
He said NSIA invested $22 million in three-flagship projects, and created the NSIA-LUTH Cancer Centre, Lagos (NLCC), NSIA-Kano Diagnostic Centre, Kano (NKDC), and NSIA-Umuahia Diagnostic Centre, Umuahia, (NUDC).
Since its inception in 2019, the NLCC has treated over 7,000 patients. It was the first to install a linear accelerator in Nigeria and remains the centre with the highest number of linear accelerators in West Africa.
Umar-Sadiq said the centre is equipped with several modern medical equipment, including three linear accelerators, a brachytherapy system, a 1.5 Tesla MRI, a 128 slice CT scanner, a mammogram, digital X-rays, ultrasound scanners and laboratory pathology systems.
The NKDC, Kano and NUDC, Umuahia provide radio imaging and laboratory diagnostic services. The centres have recorded huge success in terms of exponential growth in client patronage as they have rendered diagnostic services to nearly 120,000 clients within three years of their take off.
In the next five years, the NSIA will be building 23 new modern medical diagnostic centres, three oncology centres, and six catheterisation laboratories across the country’s six geopolitical zones.
To achieve this, the NSIA took over the management of the Enugu Diagnostic Centre, thereby making Enugu State to joins Lagos, Kano and neighbouring Abia states to enjoy its services.
The NSIA also launched two of its flagship companies, namely the NSIA Advanced Medical Service Limited (MedServe) and Equilease Systems Limited (Equilease).
MedServe was set up to serve as the vehicle to deliver NSIA’s healthcare expansion objectives. Its goal is to provide high quality and affordable health care services and ensure equitable geographic access to these services across the country.
The company will develop, equip, and operate NSIA’s expanding portfolio of health care centres and offer first class medical services nationwide.
On the other hand, EquiLease is a specialised equipment leasing service provider. Conceived as a market disruptor, the company will provide medical equipment leasing services, leveraging its strategic advantage to catalyse investments in health care institutions and facilitating the acquisition of equipment to improve the quality of healthcare in Nigeria.
“Equilease will partner medical equipment manufacturers to offer innovative financing and leasing programmes for advanced medical equipment. At the onset, it will offer services exclusively to MedServe as an anchor client until the concept is proven.The transfer of the Enugu State Medical Diagnostic Centre from the Enugu State Government to the Authority is part of the three-part event,” NSIA explained.
Following the transfer, the centre will be rehabilitated and upgraded to deliver both diagnostic and oncology services covering automated laboratory services ranging from imaging to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, brachytherapy and much more.
The centre will be managed and operated by MedServe while re-equipping will be delivered through the leasing services provided by EquiLease.
The overhaul of the centre’s infrastructure will position the facility to meet the growing demand for quality healthcare services in the East and beyond.
The transfer is a follow up to the agreements signed last September where both parties committed to it.
The handover of the facility signposts the commencement of NSIA’s healthcare expansion programme which will be executed in two phases.
Under the programme, the NSIA will develop 23 new modern medical diagnostic centres, three oncology centres, and seven catheterisation laboratories across the country’s six geopolitical zones.
Umar-Sadiq described MedServe and Equilease as transformative, market-disrupting entities that will deliver a unique set of connected solutions to bridge the gaps in the health care industry.
He added that the outcome of the creation of these entities is expected to strengthen the industry’s value chain and unclog the constraints created by insufficient financial investments, inadequate manpower capacity and substandard services.
He said: “NSIA also recognises that a significant number of medical facilities and indeed care providers are unable to afford new equipment, in part on account of the high upfront costs and currency mismatch constraints. These centres, therefore, settle for inadequate equipment, or indeed none at all.
To address these challenges, NSIA has also created Equilease Systems, which will help to reduce the burden of equipment acquisition by qualified hospitals, medical facilities and care providers by providing bespoke leasing solutions to medical facilities by entering into strategic partnerships with original equipment manufacturers.
He added that the Equilease will also launch its operations by first entering a leasing arrangement with MedServe for its required medical equipment, allowing Medserve focus on the operatorship and optimal utilisation of its equipment. In addition to leasing, Equilease will also test the possibility of expanding its services to include in sourcing of operations and maintenance as well as other value-added services.
At the end of the deal between EquiLease and Medserve, Equilease could then commence offering external clients a leasing solution for their medical equipment needs, borrowing from the key learnings of its engagement with Medserve.
“So, Enugu joins Lagos, Kano and neighbouring Abia State where NSIA’s impactful healthcare projects are already saving lives and bringing succour to the people. NSIA is excited at the prospect of playing a central role in improving the quality of medical services and expanding health care infrastructure across the country starting with Enugu, through Medserve and EquiLease,” he stated.
Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, said the journey to achieve the strategic partnership between the federal government through the NSIA and his administration was one of the steps taken by his government to stem the tide of health care deficit in the state.
He stressed that the project would address the issues of capital flight, medical tourism and preventable deaths arising from the lack of diagnostic testing centres in that part of the country.
“With this, Enugu State will be one of the few states equipped with world-class health care infrastructure and amenities,” he said.
NSIA Non-Executive Director, Dr. Ogechi Pascal-Ejiogu said the NSIA, in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Health, has signed a series of agreements to modernise and expand health care services through private sector participation.
Under these agreements, she explained that the NSIA is looking to developing the capacity of specialist hospitals and diagnostic centres to provide advanced medical services across the country under phase two of its healthcare expansion programme.
She stated that the Enugu State Diagnostic Centre will be the NSIA’s first in this phase.
According to her, “Our vision is to elevate the centre to world-class status. We intend upgrading the centre using state-of-the-art equipment so that patients and nearby hospitals are supported with accurate and timely medical results.
“The centre will also provide oncology treatment. It will double as a cancer care centre for the south-east and south-south region.
“When we are done with the rehabilitation and re-equipping, it will be transformed into a full-service location for diagnostics and oncology.
“Under the auspices of Governor Ugwuanyi and the good people of Enugu State, we shall assume ownership of the Enugu State Diagnostic Centre and commence the process of retrofitting it into a world-class diagnostic centre, fitting for the people of Enugu and environs to receive first class service.”
She noted that the NSIA board remains passionate and committed to addressing the gaps in Nigeria’s healthcare ecosystem and also to providing high quality medical services across the country.
“Our goal is to reverse medical tourism and simultaneously transform Nigeria into the Africa’s medical hub. More importantly, we believe that access to quality medical services is a fundamental human right and Nigerians deserve to have it,” she concluded.
Enugu State Governor-elect, Dr. Peter Mbah, commended the partnership between the Federal Government and the administration of Ugwuanyi over the handover of the state-of-the-art Enugu Diagnostic and Oncology Centre built by the state.
Describing the event as laudable and remarkable, the governor-elect, who was represented by the Deputy Governor-elect, Ifeanyi Ossai, said the centre would help to attend to the medical needs of not only the people of the state, but also the southeast and the country.