The Finnish government is planning to develop advanced healthcare facilities in Nigeria to meet the growing demand for quality medical services in the West African country.
The Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Sana Selin, said the facilities would be built as ‘Centres of Excellence,’ similar to those in Finland.
In an exclusive interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Ms Selin said the Finnish government came to this decision while trying to map out new areas of relations with Nigeria.
She said that the Finnish government observed many cases of Nigerians travelling abroad for healthcare.
For Finland, she said, health is a core priority in its bilateral engagement with Nigeria.
“We are mapping a new area, and one thing we find interesting is the demand for quality healthcare” by Nigerians, she told PREMIUM TIMES.
“In Finland, we created something called the Centres of Excellence for the health sector. They are usually in university hospitals or public hospitals. They are, sometimes, private hospitals as well.
“We are considering developing this kind of Centres of Excellence in Nigeria to meet national demand,” she said.
She stated that the facilities would offer the kind of quality care that many Nigerians currently travel abroad to seek.
Each year, thousands of Nigerians travel outside the country to access medical treatments that are either unavailable or considered unreliable at home.
This makes medical tourism a significant drain on the nation’s economy and its fragile health system.
According to official estimates, Nigeria loses about N567 billion yearly to medical tourism.
Between 2015 and 2023, Nigeria spent at least $29.29bn on foreign medical expenses.
Health experts and professionals have raised concerns about this, with many of them calling for greater investment in Nigeria’s health sector, improved infrastructure, and stronger policies to reduce dependence on foreign hospitals.
Corroborating this, Ms Selin said strengthening local capacity would not only save costs but also build public confidence in the country’s healthcare system.
She further noted that Finland hopes to attract patients, doctors, and other health professionals to its advanced facilities when they are constructed.
“Hopefully, we will also attract patients from neighbouring countries who are in need of healthcare services. Our facilities will have a lot of different kinds of technologies, equipment and so on.
“This is something that we are mapping out at the moment in the healthcare sector. We are involving technology. This is not just basic healthcare, but it is also a technology transfer,” she said.
The ambassador also spoke about other possible areas of cooperation between Nigeria and Finland and the trial of Nigerian separatist Simon Ekpa in Finland.