Nigeria’s healthcare sector and its industry investors are expected to benefit from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) as it offers opportunity for businesses expansion across the region, industry experts said.
The implementation of the agreement is expected to impact human capital investments, health innovations, health security, universal health coverage and Pharmaceutical Industry in a country like Nigeria.
Abiodun Awosusi, a Health Economist at a Lagos-based Health Systems and Development Enterprise said the agreement is likely to impact Nigeria’s health sector in at least five areas: “human capital investments, health innovations, trade for social impact, health security and universal health coverage.”
With the expectation of trade to begin in Africa’s free trade area on July 1, 2020, the ambitious initiative will create a single market for goods and services and a customs union with free movement of capital and business travellers–the world’s largest given Africa’s 1.2 billion population and combined GDP of over $2.5 trillion.
According to Awosusi, AfCFTA is likely to have a major impact on health system strengthening and universal health coverage with varying results across countries in Africa.
He stated that while sustainable financing is central to Universal health coverage (UHC) progress, significant funding gaps persist across the continent.
“UHC is one of the SDG 3 targets, which offers countries the right framework to increase access to high-quality health services for every citizen without financial hardship,” Awosusi said.
Sustained global support for UHC culminated in the recent adoption of a high-level United Nations declaration calling for more concerted efforts to accelerate progress across countries to achieve the target by 2030, industry experts said.
Sand Mba-Kalu, executive director of Africa International Trade and Commerce Research was of the opinion that the Africa free trade agreement is expected to open Nigeria’s Pharmaceutical industry to external competition, as compiled from an industry survey.
“The industry will attract foreign investment from more advanced pharmaceutical industry players from Africa and it will be exposed to the external regulator with Pan-African view,” Mba-Kalu, said.
According to him adopting a systematic approach will help secure adequate funding for the industry and develop the healthcare infrastructure. “It will encourage partnership with raw material source from Africa for the Nigerian pharmaceutical industry.”
Meanwhile, looking at Africa’s health security with the current Coronvirus outbreak which has affected some African countries like Nigeria, Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, and more recently Senegal, the movement of people and goods across borders will require emphasis on health security, industry experts have advised.
The on-going coronavirus epidemic affirms the value of investing in health system strengthening and cultural intelligence to prevent and/or effectively manage epidemics, experts in Nigeria’s health sector said.
“While there are no better tools and multi-stakeholder collaboration platforms to manage, there is need to pay more attention to health security as AfCFTA implementation progress gains significant momentum,” an industry player who asked not to be quoted said.
Awosusi was of the opinion that there is an urgent need to invest more resources in pandemic preparedness particularly in regional institutions like the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with vital support from multilateral and bilateral development organizations including the World Health Organization and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Each country also needs a strong public health institute to predict, prevent and manage the spread of communicable diseases within and across borders, without neglecting the growing burden of non-communicable diseases,” he said.
According to industry sources, the implementation of the free trade agreement is also expected to drive growth in private healthcare space, especially as Nigeria, suffers sets backs on medical tourism.
“As demand for cancer treatment soars, visa-free travel will enable people in the 15 African countries without radiotherapy services to seek care elsewhere,” the WEF report stated adding that private health services and medical tourism induce clinicians to migrate from poorer to richer countries and from public to private health care.
Understaffed public-health systems, especially in poorer countries, influxes of foreign clinicians will irk local medical professionals by increasing competition for jobs, the report read.
“As Nigeria and many African countries are prepared to manage well, and their leaders need to take focused action to prepare for the future,” the report stated.
ANTHONIA OBOKOH
