Nigeria’s emerging healthcare and pharmaceutical industrial growth risks losing steam without urgent, structured, and long-term financing, Prof. Lere Baale has warned.
He made the call while delivering a keynote address titled “Sustaining Nigeria’s Healthcare Industrial Boom: The Need for Dedicated Healthcare Funding” at the Codix Dinner held in Lagos, at the weekend.
Addressing an audience of policymakers, regulators, industry leaders, development partners, and captains of enterprise, Prof. Baale described Nigeria as standing at a critical inflexion point in its healthcare development journey.
According to him, the country is experiencing what he termed a “healthcare industrial awakening,” driven by expanding local manufacturing capacity, growing diagnostic innovation, improving regulatory confidence, the return of skilled professionals, and stronger regional and international partnerships.
Prof. Baale, who is also the chief executive of Business School Netherlands International, noted that the progress recorded in recent years was not accidental but the product of necessity, leadership, and hard lessons from global supply chain disruptions, the COVID-19 pandemic, foreign exchange volatility, and a renewed alignment between regulation and national industrial priorities.
However, Prof. Baale cautioned that the sustainability of these gains is under serious threat due to the absence of dedicated, affordable, and long-term healthcare-specific financing.
He stressed that healthcare manufacturing differs fundamentally from trading, describing it as capital-intensive, highly regulated, technologically demanding, and talent-driven.
“Financing healthcare manufacturing with short-term, high-cost instruments undermines sustainability,” he said, warning that an industrial boom without dedicated funding is “like a factory without power.”
The President of Nigeria Academy of Pharmacists (NAPharm) emphasised that dedicated healthcare funding should be viewed as a strategic necessity rather than a policy luxury, noting its importance in stabilising medicine supply, improving quality and compliance with global standards, creating high-value employment, strengthening national security, and attracting credible global partnerships.
To close the financing gap, Baale proposed a seven-point framework, including increasing the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund from 1 per cent to 3 per cent of consolidated revenue; domiciling the expanded fund with the Bank of Industry in collaboration with the Ministry of Health; and introducing structured Medipool arrangements at state and local government levels.
Other recommendations included Bank of Industry guarantees for healthcare industry contracts, enforcing a maximum 30-day payment turnaround to protect manufacturers’ cash flow, structuring healthcare funding as a revolving fund, establishing guaranteed offtake and sales frameworks to encourage capacity expansion, and creating a collaborative architecture that benefits government, industry, financial institutions, investors, and citizens.
Drawing lessons from global best practices, he observed that countries such as India, China, and Brazil deliberately designed financing systems to support their healthcare industries, rather than leaving growth to market forces.
While commending Codix for its consistency, excellence, and national commitment within Nigeria’s healthcare ecosystem, he stressed that the burden of transformation cannot rest on industry alone. He called on banks to evolve from mere lenders to development partners, urged policymakers to see healthcare as infrastructure investment rather than expenditure, and encouraged regulators to continue balancing safety with industrial growth.
In his closing remarks, Prof. Baale urged stakeholders to act decisively, warning that the cost of inaction would extend beyond lost investments to lost lives, confidence, and national sovereignty.
“If we fund healthcare the way we fund our future,” he said, “Nigeria will not only meet its healthcare needs but will emerge as a healthcare industrial force in Africa and beyond.”
