Prof. Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, pledged on Monday to stop an upsurge of medical tourism, put health security first, and enhance the nation’s health outcomes.

Pate made the commitment in his inaugural speech following his inauguration at the Federal Ministry of Health, which took place at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

The business sector, other stakeholders, and the federal, state, and municipal governments should work together more effectively, according to Pate.

“When you fly from Addis Ababa to India, you see a lot of people going for medical tourism; it is not a thing we should see as normal. We should do something about it and improve our health outcomes.

“Health security, coming out of the pandemic, is clear. Everybody thought health was a marginal sector, but COVID-19 answered it because it brought everybody to their knees economically. And so, taking public health and health security as very important, is something that all governments do and the President is keenly aware of that.

“It is important that we deal with the issues of governance to improve the governance of health. The federal, state and local governments, and other actors will work together on health policy and implementation.”

Nigeria spent a total of $1.04m on foreign healthcare-related services in the first quarter of 2023.

The total spending for the period under review was obtained from the quarterly statistical bulletin of the Central Bank of Nigeria for Q1 2023.

The amount spent in Q1 2023 was an increase of 40.54 per cent from the $0.74m spent in Q1 2022.

A breakdown shows that medical tourism gulped $0.34m in January 2023, $0.32m in February 2023, and the amount increased to $0.38m in March 2023.