Senior medical experts have identified trust deficit as a major factor responsible for Nigerians going abroad to seek healthcare, and not necessarily the lack of trained personnel in the nation’s health sector.
The experts noted that though the country’s healthcare sector faces some critical challenges, Nigeria still has some of the best medical doctors in the world.
They explained that systemic challenges in Nigerian hospitals often influence patients’ decisions to seek care outside the shores of Nigeria, even when similar medical expertise is available locally.
PUCNH Healthwise reports that there has been a surge in medical-related travel spending despite President Bola Tinubu’s administration policies targeted at improving healthcare infrastructure and moves to boost local pharmaceutical production.
In April 2025, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, put Nigeria’s annual losses to medical tourism at about $2 billion.
PUNCH Healthwise reports that numerous challenges, including acute manpower shortages, poor welfare for health workers, obsolete equipment, and recurring industrial unrest, compounded by cuts in global health funding, are confronting Nigeria’s health sector.
Aside from that, Nigeria still hovers around 5 per cent of its national budget as the allocation to health, far below the 15 per cent commitment African countries made in Abuja in 2001.
These challenges further highlight the continued reliance on foreign healthcare services by Nigerians who can afford it.
Meanwhile, stakeholders have consistently said that despite elites and wealthy Nigerians seeking care abroad, Nigeria boasts of some of the most competent doctors globally.
In 2024, Pate said no fewer than 67 per cent of Nigerian doctors practise in the United Kingdom. He said Nigerian-trained doctors and nurses were in high demand worldwide because Nigerians are very vibrant, entrepreneurial, and very capable wherever they are.
Also, the immediate past President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof Bala Audu, said that Nigeria, despite its challenges, is known to have highly qualified medical practitioners who provide high-end medical care across both private and public health facilities, not only to Nigerians but also to patients coming from abroad.
In a separate interview, Audu also said that Nigerian doctors are being recruited by countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Dubai because of the high quality of their training and professional competence.
However, senior medical doctors, who spoke exclusively with PUNCH Healthwise, said that though several factors were fuelling medical tourism, the absence of trust in the Nigerian healthcare system remains a major driver.
They called for deliberate efforts to rebuild public confidence in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
The doctors stressed that restoring trust is essential to reducing outbound medical tourism and ensuring that healthcare spending contributes to the growth and sustainability of the health sector in Nigeria.
Speaking, the President of the Nigerian Medical Association, Prof Afekhide Omoti, said several factors are driving Nigerians to seek medical treatment abroad.
He listed trust issues, influence of elites and public figures, limited availability of highly specialised care, perceived quality and reliability, among others, as factors driving medical tourism.
“Trust remains a major issue. Many Nigerians who can afford treatment abroad continue to perceive foreign hospitals as offering better outcomes, more advanced equipment, stronger quality assurance, and more reliable specialist care.
“Patients often travel abroad when they believe the expertise or technology they need is unavailable locally. The behavior of political and economic elites matters too. When senior government officials and wealthy individuals continue to seek treatment overseas, it can reinforce the perception that local healthcare is inadequate.
“Medical tourism is often as much a measure of trust in the healthcare system as it is a measure of healthcare capacity itself,” the NMA president said.
He clarified that using budgetary allocation alone to claim that there is increased investment in the health sector was insufficient.
“What has been budgeted for health is still a far cry from the 15% recommended in the Abuja declaration. What is actually released is far less than what was actually budgeted,” he said.
The NMA president added, “A significant number of Nigerians, especially those with the means to choose, still have greater confidence in foreign healthcare providers than in local ones. It does not necessarily mean Nigeria’s healthcare investments are ineffective, but it does suggest that building public trust is lagging behind infrastructure spending.”
Asked if he believe current investments in the health sector are being directed to the areas of greatest need, he said, “Based on publicly available information and long-standing challenges in Nigeria’s healthcare system, I would say the issue is less about whether investment is occurring and more about whether investment is sufficiently targeted, coordinated, and sustained in the areas that most affect health outcomes and public confidence.”
Also speaking, a Professor of Public Health at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Tanimola Akande, explained that medical tourism indicates a lack of trust in healthcare services in Nigeria.
“It (medical tourism) indicates the lack of confidence of those who practice it in the Nigerian health service delivery. It also suggests very low trust in the quality of health services delivered in most Nigerian health facilities,” he said.
On factors driving Nigerians to seek medical treatment abroad, he said, “Factors that drive medical tourism include poor infrastructure and equipment in most of the health facilities. Modern equipment that can aid the investigation and management of cases is hardly available, particularly in public health facilities.
“In recent times, the mass exodus of skilled health workforce is affecting the quality of health care delivery in Nigeria. Most of Nigerian who engage in medical tourism are the rich who can afford the cost of treatment outside the country. Health facilities with high quality of health care delivery are mainly available in a few high-end private health facilities located in a few cities like Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt.”
Akande lamented the economic implications of losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually to medical tourism.
“Nigeria is losing so much to medical tourism. The millions of dollars spent on medical tourism are more than enough to fix the challenges of health infrastructure and equipment in Nigeria.
“It is therefore a major area of economic loss to the country, and this puts some pressure on the exchange rate in the country. Medical tourism among affluent people, including political leaders, will reduce the willingness and tendency to improve public health facilities in Nigeria.”
The public health expert noted that there is a need for political will for Nigeria to become a destination for medical tourism
“There is a need to significantly improve the political will of the government in prioritising the health sector. The health sector should be well-funded. The capital expenditure on health infrastructure in Nigeria is too low. This is because the percentage of the government budget allocated to the health sector has remained too low for decades.
“The Abuja declaration by Ministers of Health in African countries in 2001 agreed on a minimum of 15% of total budget to be allocated to the health sector, but in Nigeria, it hovers around 5%. Nigeria should invest heavily in health infrastructure and equipment.
“The enabling environment should be provided to the private sector to put up mega modern health facilities that are well-equipped. The various challenges in human resources for health, particularly the brain drain, should be well addressed so that our best hands remain in the country to provide health care,” Akande said.
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