The invasion of the COVID-19 pandemic has described Nigeria’s reliance on imports for critical medical supplies as a threat to national health security, Which further exposed why countries with full-fledged capacity for production halted exports.
There are lots of possible opportunities in the manufacturing of medical supplies in Nigeria’s healthcare sector that investors can tap as the need to overhaul the structure of the health system grows across Africa, experts said on Wednesday at the Africa Business Conference convened by BusinessDay.
But that gap could be well harnessed to grow the sector to new heights if more investments flow into building manufacturing plants for different medical consumables and even devices that are currently being imported.
Akin Oyediran, managing director, Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company Limited, said the opportunity was there for taking if investors can look inwards to source their raw materials and devise creative ways to beat existing challenges of importation, competition, access to capital or good manpower.
Few local investors are already in active production of medical supplies such as intravenous fluids and syringes, among others.
Oyediran’s company, for instance, produces close to 3 million syringes daily, with distribution networks that cut across Nigeria and abroad.
In 2016, China controlled 47 percent of the total import of medical devices to Nigeria. It was the main supplier of consumables, patient aids and dental products, while also leading in the supply of bandages and dressings, syringes, needles and catheters and therapeutic appliances.
A report by Fitch Solutions, an American credit rating agency, projected that Nigeria’s medical device market will record a compound annual growth of 9 percent to reach $184.4 million by 2022, indicating that more revenue will flood the coffers of existing players.
The segments of cancer nuclear machines, radiotherapy machines, CT scans, dialysis machines are wholly saturated with importation.
Several investment opportunities exist across the healthcare value chain in Nigeria and investors interested in taking advantage of these opportunities could benefit from taking a long-term view of the market, the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission noted in a report .
