The inaugural StanbicIBTC healthcare breakfast session held yesterday in Lagos featuring the crème-de-crème of stakeholders across all gamut of the healthcare supply chain. The Honourable Commissioner for Health, Lagos State, Prof. Akin Abayomi led key officials of the state’s healthcare system to the maiden event which had top echelon of the sponsoring organization, SanbicIBTC in attendance at the Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, venue of the breakfast session.
While announcing the theme for the session, “The Business of Healthcare: Challenges and Opportunities” and setting the pace for the business of the day, Dr. Demola Sogunle, Chief Executive, StanbicIBTC Holdings PLC succinctly declared, “Today, we gather to connect innovators, disruptors, and change-makers that are shaping Nigeria’s healthcare landscape”. And indeed, it became a gathering of disruptors and change-makers as the guest speaker and panelists left no unturned to decipher a way forward in the health sector despite the myriad of challenges.
The theme, Dr. Sogunle further said, reflects the bank’s shared goal of progress through strategic partnerships. “We aspire to shed light on how tailored solutions can further support your ambitious endeavors”.
This is through the bank’s commitment to avail credit to healthcare entities, thereby supporting hospitals, pharmaceutical firms, HMOs, and diagnostics centers nationwide. We are very passionate about wellness in the communities we serve, and we throw our weight behind the health sector in Nigeria, the chief executive further revealed.
“We are confident that technology and financing innovation can improve healthcare access, even in the face of macro challenges. We are committed to supporting your visions. Together, let us advance Nigeria’s journey to universal health coverage, improve standards of living, as well as reduce outbound expenditures that arise from medical tourism, as we unearth opportunities for collaboration and strengthen the healthcare value chain for sustainable progress”, he challenged as he set the tone for the day.
Delivering the keynote tagged – Strategic partnerships: Catalysts for transforming Nigeria’s healthcare sector, Mrs. Clare Omatseye FPSN, FWACS, FNAPharm MD/CEO, JNC International Limited in her Overview of the Current State of the Nigerian Health Sector paints a gory picture revealing, ‘Africa has 25% of the Worlds Disease burden with only 1.3% of the Global health workforce’
Invariably, according to her, Nigeria is plagued with poor access to Quality Healthcare, Deteriorating medical infrastructure, Near highest Maternal and Under 5 Mortality globally, Failure of Health Systems, Brain Drain – Losing Healthcare workers in droves; and Low Health Insurance coverage of <6% of the population.
Other low points include the Prevalence of Communicable Diseases like TB, Malaria, and HIV/AIDS; the Growing prevalence of NCD’s- Cardiovascular disease, Cancer, and Diabetes; Low Life expectancy – Nigeria is 54 years as against our next-door neighbour Ghana’s 64 years. Outbound Medical Tourism (>$1Billion annually); Low government budgetary allocation and poor compensation all account for the poor state of the nation’s healthcare system.
“The healthcare sector has faced several challenges, which have been exacerbated by rising costs, changing demographics, shortage of clinicians and healthcare professionals, quality of care and transparency in practices, access to finance, access to healthcare services and patient centricity are considered major challenges that impact healthcare industry today”, the keynote speaker noted.
For instance, dwelling on healthcare financing, Mrs. Omatseye explained that high Out-of-pocket Expenses make for 62.1-90% of Expenditure leading to catastrophic costs and poverty. Similarly, Low Health Insurance Finance and No Incentive Coverage < 5%, Inadequate Legal framework; Limited Access to Affordable Long-term Policy for Investments in the Health sector are the order of the day.
Dwelling on ‘partnerships for health’ as another of the pillars of health strengthening, the speaker disclosed that Poorly coordinated donor funds and activities lead to duplicity and wastage, Poor interaction with the Private Sector; Poor viable platforms for Public–Private Partnerships for Health; and No enabling PPP Policy to protect Private Investors are disincentives to the sector.
She, however, commended the government for increasing the 2024 budgetary vote for health to ₦1,502,849,443,353.00 being 5.46% of the proposed overall expenditure, but noted with dismay that the sum is still less than 1/3rd of the 15% Abuja Declaration commitment.
To move the sector out of the current doldrums, the speaker emphasized there is a need for strategic partnerships and transformation.
“Strategic Partnerships have become the cornerstone for the development of healthcare in Nigeria. Private Sector and Public Sector partnerships have been built over the years and we can recognize the importance of these partnerships in resolving key health issues ranging from communicable diseases to non-communicable and further to pandemics as with Covid-19.
According to her, there are other key stakeholders in the healthcare system to be considered which include the banking industry, the pharmaceutical industry, the alliance of other private sector players interested in the development of healthcare, technical and financial donors amongst others.
The importance of strategic partnerships cannot be over-emphasized as it aids Policy Influence, collaboration brings about efficiency and speed; resource pooling; just as cross-disciplinary collaboration fosters innovation.
Increased Accountability and corporate governance, Community Engagement, Adaptability to Change, Scalability and Impact; and Learning and Knowledge Sharing to foster continuous learning, are some of the other advantages and opportunities inherent in strategic partnerships.
While closing, the MD/CEO, JNC International observed hinged on the truism, “Yesterday’s solutions will not solve today’s problems”, hence there is a need for Innovative healthcare Operating Models.
Noting that health providers in Nigeria are in an unprecedented market that is putting significant pressure on stakeholders, advised the stakeholders, “To be viable for the foreseeable future, health systems need to simultaneously improve operations, restructure their model, and advance their operations with digital”. For her, by utilizing this framework to address both specific operational challenges and existential financial challenges, providers can chart a course to long-term financial sustainability
Concluding the speaker submitted that improving the health sector in Nigeria is an arduous task but can be achieved through the following through leveraging strategic partnerships as Catalysts for transforming Nigeria’s healthcare sector.
These include addressing the many challenges with Partnerships with concerted effort from all stakeholders, including government bodies, healthcare providers, NGOs, and the private sector; Effective governance structures, transparent communication, and a shared commitment to long-term goals are essential for overcoming these obstacles and ensuring the success of strategic healthcare partnerships in Nigeria.
The speaker also submitted that Legislative and Regulatory Reform is critical at the National and Sub National levels to de-risk investments and protect private sector investors and build trust while adding that Fiscal & Non fiscal Incentives to unlock the private sector are also of essence. She also advocated for the redesigning of the health system: Country and Regional –wide to achieve UHC – Thinking Regionalization , Transfer of Technology, JV’s (Local and FDI), Clear policy framework for Medicine Sovereignty (Drug Security).
Innovative Development Financing which she says must be “long-term and affordable”, rides high on her recommendations as she aptly noted “this is a major precursor to unlocking nascent partnerships in Healthcare Infrastructure, Training HCW’s and Service Provision”