TheCable

Tunji Alausa, minister of state for health, says people are travelling from Europe, India, and Sub-Saharan Africa to access healthcare services in Nigeria.

Speaking during an interview on Arise TV on Tuesday, Alausa said it is affordable to undergo surgical procedures in Nigeria.

The minister said the country has over 900 aesthetic hospitals across all states.

He said the government has allocated “dedicated funds” and also solicited partnerships to improve primary healthcare centres and insurance coverage.

“Go to the hospital in Lagos, people are coming from India, sub-Saharan Africa, and even Europe to come and get health care in Nigeria,” the minister said.

“Getting surgical operations is cheaper; you will be glad to know that today we have almost 900 aesthetic hospitals all around Nigeria.

“People are coming to get plastic surgeries. Go to LUTH today at the cancer centre, NSIA LUTH cancer centre has state-of-the-art equipment, whatever you can get anywhere in the world.

“We have the linear accelerator; they have everything there. People are coming from sub-Saharan Africa to get cancer treatment.

“We are moving all over the country. This is not only Lagos alone; we are moving to rural areas. We have dedicated funds, and we are aligning what we have in the basic healthcare provision fund, which has more funding now, with our development partners.

“We are aligning more and collaborating more to direct these funds to our primary healthcare centre. We are also directing a lot of these funds to our national health insurance agency to increase coverage.

“Mr President has mandated us to increase coverage from about seven million to about 50 million people to have health insurance in the next two to three years.

“This marks the highest budget allocation for the health sector in almost 24 years.”