2026 Annual Conference of the Association of Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria

Keynote address at the 2026 Annual Conference of the Association of Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, discussing the role of private medical practitioners in enhancing healthcare delivery.

Last month, I was the keynote speaker at the 2026 Annual Conference of the Association of Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria, the private sector arm of the Nigerian Medical Association with the topic, “Enhancing Healthcare Delivery in Nigeria - The Role of Private Medical Practitioners.” I discussed about the poor health indices in Nigeria; stating that “ A nation's health indices are not, just statistics, they are mirrors, reflecting the value, placed on human life”

Healthcare delivery is either by public or private sectors. Health is on the concurrent legislative list in Nigeria and the public health system is delivered in three tiers while the private sector health system, servicing about 70% of the citizens, operate through clinics and hospitals in different sizes and scopes.

I stressed that while the public health systems are challenged with poor funding, dilapidated facilities, and poor patient experience, the private health system suffers from poor regulation, variably poor quality of service, low access to cheap long term funds, low health and social insurance coverages, and microeconomic challenges, with difficult out of pocket expense for health care services and effects of hostile business environment in Nigeria, coupled with macro economic shocks. The issue of shortage of skilled healthcare personnel has reached a critical situation in both systems in Nigeria.

I concluded by saying “On issues of health care, no one should be left behind. Therefore more collaborations, between the public and private health sectors, and among the private sector players, are key. Finally let us be reminded that healthcare transformation requires political will, sustainable financing, collaborations and accountable leadership to achieve desirable outcomes.”