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NESG Launches Paper To Boost Nigerian Health Sector Funding
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), a leading policy think tank, launched its paper yesterday titled “Attracting Funding for the Nigerian Health Sector.”
The paper, which focused on healthcare financing, examined major business opportunities in the country’s healthcare sector. It also looked at the challenges faced by investors and proffered solutions towards overcoming the identified challenges.
These steps, the organizers believed, will encourage investment in the sector as well as guarantee improved health for the population.
Leading the authorship of the paper titled, ‘NESG’s Health As A Business’, was Dr. Ola Brown (MFR), the thematic team lead and founder, of HealthCap Africa, a venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage investments in health tech and fintech startups across Africa.
HealthCap has invested in over 20 companies that currently have operations across 12 countries, serving nearly one million customers and patients, and creating over 1,000 jobs.
Dr. Ola is a medical doctor who holds a Master’s Degree in Finance and Economic Policy. She is currently doing her Ph.D in Finance. She took the center stage to present the paper during the launch event. In her presentation, she spoke about healthcare being a major generator of profit and returns. She also spoke on the advantages of financing healthcare companies, challenges faced by founders, promoters and investors in Nigeria’s healthcare businesses as well as means of addressing the challenges.
“We, as a sector, need to advocate for our sector. It is as important as banks,
telecommunications, oil and gas but we have not positioned the sector properly. Healthcare creates employment. It is a wealth generator. If we get it right, we will definitely get exports”, Dr. Ola stated.
The occasion, which was held in Lagos, kicked off with a warm and concise introduction from a member of the Health Policy Commission, Dr. Jesupelumi Adenihun. The exercise was followed by the opening remarks by Dr. Tinuola Akinbolagbe, who is a member of the HPC Steering Committee. Meanwhile, Dr. Obinna Nnewuihe, also a member of the HPC, eloquently provided the contextual background just before the presentation of the paper.
The panel discussion was led by Dr Olayemi Dawodu, Dr. Uyi Ima-Edomwonyi, Dr. Ayodele Cole-Benson and Dr. Richardson Ajayi, who was the Chairman, of the Steering Committee. The session featured interesting discussions around the opportunities for healthcare as a business, the challenges, solutions and ways to fund healthcare businesses.
The closing remark was made by Dr. Mories Atoki, Lead Facilitator of, the Health Policy Commission.
African countries spend between $8 and $129 per capita on health compared to high-income countries that spend up to $12,000 per capita. Inadequate investment in healthcare services or initiatives to address the environmental and social determinants of health constitutes a significant barrier to improving health outcomes in Africa.
The NESG paper provided readers with the idea of the sheer scale of the opportunities in Africa across the healthcare value chain. The paper targeted promoters, policymakers and investors.
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) was established and incorporated as a non-profit, non-partisan private sector organization with a mandate to promote and champion the reform of the Nigerian economy into an open, private sector-led globally competitive economy.
Over the years, NESG has achieved significant progress in the areas of research outputs, execution of programmes, seminars, conferences and workshops aimed at facilitating the formulation and implementation of social and economic reform programmes for the growth and transformation of the Nigerian economy.
NESG has emerged as the most notable platform for public-private dialogue in the country. During this period, the Group has established an excellent working relationship with the government of Nigeria, the public sector, the private sector and other stakeholders.
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