The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has said medical tourism is putting a huge strain on the country’s foreign reserves.

Emefiele said on Friday that the CBN and other banks would support the healthcare sector to reverse the trend.

He spoke during the official launch of Duchess International Hospital in Lagos which was attended by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, and some state governors.

He said, “Medical tourism put a huge strain on our foreign reserves, and more importantly, for every $1bn allocated to medical treatment abroad, there is less than $1bn that could be available to other critical sectors of our economy.

“As part of this effort, the CBN and select private sector stakeholders supported COVID-19 intervention initiatives through CACOVID.”

He said to further drive the recovery of the economy, the monetary policy recognised that while the interventions in the manufacturing sector were essential, it was also important to continue to give support to the medical sector.

“When we started COVID-19 intervention initiatives, the CBN set aside N100bn to support the healthcare sector, but upon the rise in demand, we have disbursed N107.7bn, supporting 114 healthcare projects which include medical diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, dental services, eye clinics both private and public hospital – just to mention a few,” Emefiele said.

He encouraged banks to lend and the private sector to also invest in the country.

Our correspondents gathered that Duchess International Hospital, which was built to international standard, got loan interventions from some banks.

Emefiele said the CBN would tell the banks to help restructure the loan facilities of the hospital as it was pleased with the project.


https://punchng.com/medical-tourism-putting-huge-strain-on-foreign-reserves-cbn/

An ancestral statue was in UK for months, all the who is in who went to see. Calculating what was spent will give you a rough estimate of Emifiele's lamentations.

I really need to understand this. Does it mean that we withdraw money from our foreign reserves to give to those going on medical tourism at #420 per $1?

I read the article to see the connection between Nigeria's foreign reserves and medical tourism but the incompetent CBN governor didn't explain it. Serious countries rarely touch their foreign reserves

If this were happening in other countries where people in govt actually knew what they were doing; every one would be panicking because they know the implications of such news. But in UAR, the cattle in Aso Rock are currently sleeping on a fuller stomach, with their legs ajar. The ones that are not sleeping are probably planning how to use what's left in the foreign reserves for more medical tours and shopping.

Emefile is by far the most irritating and annoying idiot in this Boko govt. Even Lai Mohammed is not as annoying as this fool. At least, Lai gives us some comic relief with his own stupidity version but this bald headed idiot called Emefile is a wicked sociopath.

TheDevilIsALai:
Emefile is by far the most irritating and annoying idiot in this Boko govt. Even Lai Mohammed is not as annoying as this fool. At least, Lai gives us some comic relief with his own stupidity version but this bald headed idiot called Emefile is a wicked sociopath.

Buhari and Tinubu top the list of wasters.

See this idiot called Emeiefele has to be sacked ASAP ..so it's no longer Aboki FX again but medical tourism?

The idiot should tell that to Buhari

SarkinYarki:
See this idiot called Emeiefele has to be sacked ASAP ..so it's no longer Aboki FX again but medical tourism?

Do they know what they are doing.
Anyway I enjoyed their naira for dollar buy fuel.

Very soon they will blame E-Naira.

Lalasticlala