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Chapter 6 of AHOP's Nigeria Health Systems and Services Profile.
Key messages
- About 80% of Nigeria’s public health infrastructure is dysfunctional, which impedes the country’s ability to provide health care to its citizens and leads to losses of about US$ 1 billion annually to outbound health tourism.
- Insufficient funds, the absence of plans for equipment maintenance and inadequately trained personnel exacerbate the poor state of the health infrastructure and equipment nationwide.
- Development partners have filled gaps in the provision of laboratory, diagnostic and medical equipment. Several funded programmes – such as those for malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis – provide laboratory consumables, diagnostic kits and machines.
- Policies and guidelines governing health care infrastructure and equipment are dispersed across various health-related laws and guidance. The absence of an overarching national policy has contributed to the poor distribution and allocation of health care facilities within states and across the country.
- Private health care providers deliver an estimated 70% of the health care services in the country. However, the regulation and monitoring of the sector by the government is weak, and the enforcement of standards and compliance is limited.
- The Basic Health Care Provision Fund offers a predictable funding window for infrastructure and equipment, including emergency ambulance services, but the overall level of investment is too low to maintain functionality.
- Existing government reforms to address health infrastructure gaps – including the Central Bank of Nigeria’s intervention fund, public–private partnerships and concessionary arrangements – have produced mixed results.