There are viable opportunities in the manufacturing of medical supplies in Nigeria’s healthcare sector that investors can tap as the need to overhaul the structure of the health system grows across Africa, experts said on Wednesday at the Africa Business Conference convened by BusinessDay.
They described Nigeria’s reliance on imports for critical medical supplies as a threat to national health security, which the COVID-19 pandemic further exposed when countries with full-fledged capacity for production halted exports.
But that gap could be well harnessed to grow the sector to new heights if more investments flow into building manufacturing plants for different medical consumables and even devices that are currently being imported.
Akin Oyediran, managing director, Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company Limited, said the opportunity was there for taking if investors can look inwards to source their raw materials and devise creative ways to beat existing challenges of importation, competition, access to capital or good manpower.
Few local investors are already in active production of medical supplies such as intravenous fluids and syringes, among others.
Oyediran’s company, for instance, produces close to 3 million syringes daily, with distribution networks that cut across Nigeria and abroad.
Med-In Pharmaceuticals Limited runs an ultra-modern intravenous (IV) fluids factory in Ogun State, capable of producing 4,000 bottles per hour.
However, the impact of these efforts on the volume of demand and share of the market is still low, with much of the medical device market left to the dominance of importation.
“There are so many things in the supply chain from delivering medical care to profitable ventures that will interest financiers. It just has to be creative. If we don’t start manufacturing things, we might be back to where we were before the pandemic struck,” Oyediran said during the panel session on health.
“But we also need to figure out how we can encourage local manufacturers so that we can make these things available at affordable prices in Nigeria,” he said.
In 2016, China controlled 47 percent of the total import of medical devices to Nigeria. It was the main supplier of consumables, patient aids and dental products, while also leading in the supply of bandages and dressings, syringes, needles and catheters and therapeutic appliances.
A report by Fitch Solutions projected that Nigeria’s medical device market will record a compound annual growth of 9 percent to reach $184.4 million by 2022, indicating that more revenue will flood the coffers of existing players.
The segments of cancer nuclear machines, radiotherapy machines, CT scans, dialysis machines are wholly saturated with importation.
Speaking on the pathway to move the healthcare systems forward, Tinuke Akinbolagbe, chief executive of Private Sector Health Alliance, strongly made a case for increased financing to be targeted at the health sector, especially tech-enabled health businesses.
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She cited how the pandemic exposed new ways that healthcare could be accessed through technology, noting that the country can record a lot of strides if the right technologies are deployed.
She also canvassed for more financial education and financial literacy for medical experts, saying it is as critical as the need for significant funding.
“Investment in the health sector are more medium to long term and we need to create an enabling environment, work hand in hand with the government and very importantly, the organised private sector across Africa must get involved,” she said.
“There must be pools of funds available for healthcare whether we chose to go the route of health insurance or have some type of health insurance in place for the private sector to fund, and there must be ring-fencing of funds for the private sector,” she said.
Several investment opportunities exist across the healthcare value chain in Nigeria and investors interested in taking advantage of these opportunities could benefit from taking a long-term view of the market, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission noted in a report done earlier by BusinessDay.
