The data from the apex bank’s Balance of Payment compilation spanning the first six months of 2023 showed that Nigerians spent $245.68m on overseas health-related issues, $896.09m on foreign education, and $434.63m on other personal foreign needs.

The apex bank, in an explanatory note titled, Note D, defined Balance of Payments as “a systematic record of economic and financial transactions for a given period between residents of an economy and non-residents.”

Commenting on this, the National Vice Chairman of the Joint Health Sector Unions, Dr Obinna Ogbonna, said , “Nigerians who are well-to-do lack confidence in our medical facilities. Even though we have well-trained personnel that can handle all medical cases, the infrastructure and the equipment are not adequate.

“These prefer to spend their money abroad, but when they get there, it is still Nigerian doctors that will attend to them. We hope President Bola Tinubu will make our health centres attractive by putting up standard infrastructures and equipment that are up-to-date with the current emerging diseases ravaging the country.”

The country is making moves to reverse the trend of medical tourism amidst declining revenues. A bill seeking to prescribe a jail term of seven years and, or a fine of N500m recently passed a second reading at the House of Representatives.