Nigeria – Very hopeful medical equipment market
April 14, 2015 18:04:37
Since Nigeria is still an undeveloped “virgin market” for medical equipment, analysts from
the western market point out that this will be a widely developed market due to the large
population in the country and high income by the government.
According to the western media’s report, public hospitals in Nigeria import only about 38%
of all imported drugs and medical equipment. The other 62% goes to private hospitals.
This indicates that the development of the public Nigerian hospital system is weaker comparing
to that of private hospitals who are servicing more “ wealthy” patients. The reality is that many
poor people have no place to go to see a doctor nor do they have money for treatment in
many rural areas.
Reported by Western media, the Nigerian government has adopted a “for the people policy”
in order to improve providing health care for the poor. It has put aside over 1 billion US dollars
in a “Nigerian Major Disease Prevention fund” especially to help the poor people in the rural areas
to reimburse their medical expenses. This means that in the future, Nigerian public hospitals will
obtain funds to purchase needed medical equipment and drugs. This is definitely great news for
the medical equipment merchants and suppliers.
Western market analysts point out that right now Nigeria has immediate needs of medical products
for cancer treatment and pediatric surgical equipment. Nigeria has the largest amount of cancer
patients in Africa and is listed number 1 for deaths of new born babies in African countries.
Western specialist media also reported that Nigeria is in immediate need of 3 types of medical
equipment: 1. Anesthesia equipment 2.type B Ultra sound machine for diagnostic purposes 3.Lab
equipment for hospitals. These are the 3 types of medical equipment that yet to be
manufactured in Nigeria but are in desperate need in hospitals.