JDC partners IFC, health ministry on summit in Abuja

It is impossible to rule out the importance of finance in healthcare delivery. Yet healthcare in most of sub-Saharan Africa has remained the worst in the world, despite decades of foreign financial aid. Few countries in the region are able to spend even the $34–$40 per person per year that the World Health Organisation (WHO) considers the minimum necessary to provide a population with basic healthcare in spite of the billions of dollars of international aid dispensed, an astonishing 50 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s total health expenditure is financed by out-of-pocket payments from its largely impoverished population.

A study, conducted by IFC with assistance from McKinsey and Company, estimates that over the next decade, $25–$30 billion in new investment will be needed in healthcare assets, including hospitals, clinics, and distribution warehouses, to meet the growing healthcare demands of sub-Saharan Africa.

The IFC report highlights the critical role the private sector can play in meeting the need for more and higher-quality healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. It also identifies policy changes that governments and international donors can make to enable the private sector to take on an even more meaningful role in closing Africa’s healthcare gap.

In closing this gap, James Daniel Consulting in partnership with IFC and Federal Ministry of Health is organising a healthcare summit to kick-start discussions with key stakeholders with the purpose of staging a Health Infrastructure Investment and Financing Summit scheduled to take place in Abuja on June 17-18, 2013.

According to the organisers, the proposed summit will examine and present case studies examples of successful model of health system investment projects – for replicability; in the context of transforming the health sector; explore different health investment instrument/packages; open up a catalogue of investment opportunities and requirements (compendium); fine-tune existing financing mechanisms, revisit the PPP regulations, create a framework action agenda for the hospital sector and declare policy process agenda/deliverables.

The Health In Africa initiative (HiA) is addressing financing issues in the private health sector and has mobilised about $1bn so far for investments in Africa and is using a mix of strategies to promote investments in health sector in Africa though both equity and debt components. At the event, more light will be shed on how these funds can be accessed.

The HiA in Nigeria will be presenting the ‘Nigeria Private Health Market Studies’ on June 17, 2013 at the International Conference Centre Abuja during the Nigeria Financing Infrastructure and Investment Summit. The honourable minister of health will launch the publication.