Cost
By Abujah Racheal
Abuja, Dec. 11, 2025 (NAN) Healthcare stakeholders have called for urgent reforms to strengthen quality, affordability, and equity in Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system.
They said that millions of people remained at risk due to slow progress in implementing essential policies and reducing out-of-pocket expenditure.
They made the call in a webinar on Thursday at Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day 2025 High-Level Convening.
The event had the theme “Unaffordable Health Costs? We’re Sick of It.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 2025 UHC Day High-Level Convening was organised by the Nigeria UHC Forum, in collaboration with PharmAccess Foundation.
It brought together national and sub-national leaders, policymakers, health financing experts, development partners, civil society, and implementing organisations to drive equitable, high-quality and financially-accessible healthcare for all Nigerians.
The convening focused on reducing financial hardship and strengthening domestic healthcare financing.
At the stakeholder engagement, Dr Njide Ndili, President of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria, said that unaffordable healthcare costs and inequities had pushed many families into poverty.
Ndili emphasised that quality was the arrowhead of UHC, and commended the Coordinating Minister of Health, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, for prioritising reforms.
The doctor said that real impact would depend on frontline implementation across institutions and local governments.
“Today is about showcasing what is already working, learning from it, and scaling it.”
She said that Nigeria should do more to be able to meet the global UHC target of 2030, urging collaboration among governments, the private sector, civil society, and development partners.
Dr Funke Fasawe, Country Director, Clinton Health Access Initiative, said that citizens’ access to healthcare should not depend on their purchasing power.
“Too many people are dying because they have to pay out of pocket for even the most basic services,” she said.
Fasawe called for stronger policy implementation and collective pressure from citizens, not just institutions, to ensure accountability in the health system.
“No Nigerian should die because he lacks the resources to pay for care,” she added.
She reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to supporting government efforts to expand equitable access to healthcare.
Dr Saheed Ogunme, Chief Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Meta, Lagos State, said healthcare providers daily witnessed devastating effects of unaffordable care on patients.
He said that hospitals often absorbed financial losses that threatened sustainability.
“We see daily the challenges of patients who cannot afford care, and it is disheartening. Hospitals lose money, and it affects our bottom line.
“Nigeria must decide the road we want to travel, whether to adopt a tax-funded system like the UK’s NHS or an insurance-driven model like in the United States,” he said.
He urged policymakers to choose a clear, sustainable direction that would ensure that no citizen would be denied essential care due to cost.
Meanwhile, in a video clip played during the event, Pate highlighted Federal Government’s ongoing initiatives to enhance access to quality healthcare through collaborations with SafeCare and Access, emphasising governance, efficiency and digital transformation.
“As a project, we work with various state governments and non-junior tertiary hospitals through the Summit Committee we created two years ago.
“SafeCare has been instrumental in setting ethical standards, accrediting services, and enhancing the capacity of our health system to focus on quality improvement,” he said.
Under the Health Sector Rural Investment Initiative, he said the ministry was focusing on three pillars: governance to improve responsiveness and accountability, prioritising effective and affordable services, and reducing rural healthcare disparities.
“We are beginning to see improvements, although we are not there yet. Quality is about using resources efficiently. Poor-quality care is wasteful.
“The resilience of our health system will be enhanced if we move toward overall quality improvement, and partners like Sifke are contributing to this direction,” he added.
NAN reports that digital transformation was also highlighted as a critical enabler for system-wide quality improvement.
All speakers agreed that Nigeria should urgently move beyond discussions to concrete implementation that improves service quality, reduces out-of-pocket spending, and expands access for underserved populations.
They expressed optimism that 2026 would mark a turning point in Nigeria’s journey toward UHC if stakeholders commit to coordinated, evidence-driven reforms.
Participants at the event include state and national health policymakers, health insurance agencies, development partners, public health leaders and researchers.
The others are members of civil society organisations, media professionals, private sector health leaders, and champions of quality care and health financing. (NAN)www.nannews.ng
AIR/IGO
========
Edited by Ijeoma Popoola