Nigeria's Hospital Revival: Rebuilding Trust

Table of Contents

A New Era in Nigerian Healthcare

For decades, Nigeria’s healthcare system was often measured against the world from afar—in airport lounges and foreign hospital corridors. It was a story of long journeys, drained savings, and quiet resignation that the best care lay beyond the nation’s borders. From London to India, Dubai to Egypt, Nigerians voted with their feet and their wallets, fuelling a multi-billion-naira medical tourism industry, even as local hospitals struggled to earn confidence, patronage, and trust.

That exodus is now slowing. In its place, a different narrative is emerging—one marked not by despair, but by cautious optimism; not by flight, but by return. Across policy rooms, hospital wards, and community clinics, Nigeria’s healthcare reforms are beginning to restore belief in the system and, crucially, in the possibility that quality care can be found at home.

At the heart of this shift is a combination of political will, financial commitment, and structural reform that is gradually changing both perception and reality. According to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, recent data tells a story that would have seemed improbable only a few years ago. Figures show that foreign exchange spent on medical tourism has fallen significantly since the current administration took office. For a country that once lost hundreds of billions of naira annually on healthcare abroad, this decline is more than a fiscal statistic. It signals returning confidence, as patients increasingly choose Nigerian hospitals, and the system slowly reclaims its relevance.

The shift is visible not only in outbound numbers but also in the changing profile of patients. Nigerian hospitals are no longer serving only local residents. Increasingly, they are attracting inbound medical tourists, including patients from neighbouring African countries, who now see Nigeria as a destination for specialised care rather than a point of departure. This renewed confidence is reflected in perception surveys conducted between 2023 and 2025. Public confidence in Nigeria’s overall health system has risen to 55 percent. Trust in the government’s ability to manage health emergencies stands at 67 percent, while patient satisfaction with healthcare facilities has climbed to 74 percent. Modest as these numbers may seem in isolation, they represent a decisive break from years of public scepticism and institutional fatigue.

Behind the statistics lies a deeper transformation, rooted in workforce reform, service delivery improvements, and renewed attention to the welfare of health professionals. For decades, Nigeria’s doctors, nurses, and allied health workers laboured under difficult conditions, sustained more by commitment than compensation. Promises accumulated, expectations grew, and frustration festered.

This legacy shaped the current administration’s approach to healthcare reform. Rather than confrontation, it chose dialogue. Rather than episodic concessions, it pursued structured negotiation. Over the past two and a half years, the government has prioritised collective bargaining, sustained engagement, and incremental trust-building as the path to industrial harmony.

The results are now visible. Despite isolated disruptions, the overwhelming majority of Nigeria’s health workforce continues to deliver care nationwide. Long-standing issues that had stalled for years are finally moving. One symbolic breakthrough was presidential approval to extend the retirement age of clinically skilled health workers from 60 to 65 years—a measure now progressing through statutory processes. Arrears under the 2023 Consolidated Medical Salary Structure have been cleared, health allowances across cadres are being processed, and more than 10 billion naira owed under the 2025 Medical Research and Training Fund has been fully settled.

Other demands are being addressed through the collective bargaining agreement framework, with interim relief measures—such as on-call allowances—already in place. While not all legacy issues have been resolved, the trajectory is clear: the system is no longer frozen; it is moving. This progress is reflected most vividly in frontline facilities. In 2023, Basic Health Care Provision Fund facilities recorded an average of 10 million patient visits per quarter. By the second quarter of 2025, visits had surged to more than 40 million—a fourfold increase that underscores renewed trust at the community level.

The surge has been supported by unprecedented expansion in funding. Federal health spending has risen by nearly 60 percent, with health’s share of national expenditure increasing from just over 3 percent to 5.2 percent. The Basic Health Care Provision Fund has grown from 131.5 billion naira in 2024 to nearly 299 billion naira projected by 2026. Additional plans include raising 150 billion naira for vaccine procurement, deploying health-focused taxes, expanding public-private partnerships, and rolling out ward-level health plans across all 8,809 wards in Nigeria’s 774 local government areas.

These reforms are anchored within a broader vision outlined in the 2026–2050 National Development Plan. More than 500 high-impact projects are underway, spanning 13 tertiary institutions, six cancer centres of excellence, and 21 strategic policies. Digital health initiatives alone are projected to save 4.8 trillion naira annually by preventing avoidable diseases, while retaining an estimated 850 billion naira previously lost to medical tourism.

The early outcomes of Nigeria’s healthcare reforms are already tangible. Maternal deaths have declined by 17 per cent across 172 high-burden local governments, while newborn deaths are down by 12 per cent. More than 15,000 health workers have been recruited, and 435 primary healthcare facilities have been revitalised. Access to skilled birth attendants has risen by 33 per cent, routine immunisation coverage for measles, yellow fever, and HPV has improved, and family planning uptake has increased by 10 percent.

In primary healthcare alone, visits funded through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund rose from 10 million in early 2024 to 45 million by mid-2025. Each visit represents not just a patient, but a choice to stay, to trust, and to believe that care at home is possible. Parallel to service delivery reforms is a deliberate push to industrialise healthcare and reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imports. In the second half of the year, the government intensified partnerships with international development partners to strengthen local manufacturing capacity.

One of the most significant milestones was the signing of a landmark memorandum of understanding with Brazil’s EMS to establish a World Health Organisation good manufacturing practice-compliant pharmaceutical plant in Nigeria. The facility is expected to create over 1,200 skilled jobs, produce affordable, high-quality medicines for more than 30 million Nigerians, cut import dependence, and position Nigeria as a regional exporter under a broader medical industrialisation drive.

This effort is complemented by a two-year partnership with the European Union and UNICEF under the 6.3 million euro Enabling Local Manufacturing of Health, Immunisation and Nutrition Commodities in Nigeria initiative. With 5.5 million euros from the European Union and an additional 800,000 euros from Spain, the programme aims to strengthen manufacturing capacity, supply chains, regulatory systems, and technology transfer, reducing reliance on imported vaccines, medicines, and nutrition products.

Nigeria has also signed a technical memorandum of understanding with the United States valued at about five billion dollars to deepen bilateral health cooperation. Covering April 2026 to December 2030, the agreement commits the United States to provide nearly two billion dollars in grant funding, while Nigeria pledges to allocate at least six percent of executed annual federal and state budgets to health. The commitment is expected to mobilise close to three billion dollars over five years and has already been factored into the proposed 2026 Appropriation.

Malaria, one of Nigeria’s most persistent public health challenges, is receiving renewed attention. The launch of the country’s first dual active ingredient long-lasting insecticidal net manufacturing plant in Ogun State marks a turning point. Scheduled for completion in 2026, the facility will produce about 10 million nets annually, meeting roughly 30 percent of national demand. Facilitated by the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain in partnership with Switzerland’s Vestergaard and Nigeria’s Harvestfield Industries, the project is expected to create 600 skilled jobs and position Nigeria as a regional hub for health product manufacturing.

Cancer care, long plagued by underinvestment and fragmentation, is also undergoing transformation. Since the establishment of the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment two years ago, cancer control has received sustained policy attention. For the first time in Nigeria’s history, a dedicated cancer control budget was approved in 2024. Twelve tertiary hospitals have been designated as cancer centres of excellence, with modern oncology equipment deployed across all geopolitical zones. Workforce training, cancer registries, digital reporting systems, and access to essential medicines are being strengthened through coordinated national strategies.

The impact of these reforms is amplified by private sector-led specialist centres that are redefining what is possible within Nigeria. The African Medical Centre of Excellence in Abuja, a 350 million dollar facility, has emerged as a powerful symbol of the new era. Barely six months after opening, the centre performed its first open-heart surgery and delivered West Africa’s first stereotactic body radiation therapy for lung cancer.

These milestones have had immediate ripple effects. Nigerian patients have cancelled planned treatments in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Egypt to receive care locally. Referrals have come from South Africa and Ghana. Procedures that once required travel now cost about 3,000 dollars locally, compared to up to five times more abroad when travel and accommodation are included, with patients paying in naira.

Within weeks, the centre completed more than ten interventional cardiac procedures, including angiography, stenting, and pacemaker implantation. In oncology, it recorded 130 new patients in three months, over 400 clinical encounters, 160 chemotherapy sessions planned for 27 patients, and 651 radiotherapy fractions scheduled for 31 patients. Palliative care accounted for 30 percent of cases. Beyond treatment, the centre is addressing health worker migration through skills transfer, with Nigerian professionals forming the majority of its workforce.

Even environmental health, often overlooked, is receiving attention. The commissioning of Nigeria’s first polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) treatment facility in Abuja marks a major milestone in hazardous waste management. With plans underway to replicate the facility nationwide, Nigeria is strengthening its ability to protect public health, comply with international conventions, and create green jobs within a circular economy.

Taken together, these reforms form a mosaic of renewal. No single policy explains the shift. It is the accumulation of decisions, investments, and trust-building measures that is gradually changing behaviour. Nigerians are staying. Some are returning. Others are arriving. The reversal of medical tourism is not yet complete. Challenges remain. But the direction is unmistakable. In hospitals once bypassed, lights are on again. In clinics once empty, queues are forming. In a system long defined by loss, confidence is being restored. For the first time in years, Nigeria’s healthcare story is no longer written abroad. It is being written at home.