Check Out the Huge Amount Nigeria Loses Yearly on Foreign Medical Attention

 

Nigeria loses over 28 billion United States dollars annually to medical tourism, and risks losing more this year, as over 23 percent of pregnant Nigerian women insist on having their children abroad, in spite of the stern warning by the Ministry of Health that babies of pregnant travelers to the United States and Latin America, risk contracting the deadly Zika fever.

The Medical Tourism Association research statistics, disclose that “23 percent of Nigeria’s population has access to a combined buying power in excess of US28 billion dollars, mostly made up of professional and middle-class Nigerians whose desire to seek privileges such as better health care services or simply dual citizenship options for their child/children is on the rise”, despite the warning.

As it implies, Birth tourists are women who travel out for the singular purpose of giving birth. Some circles crudely refer to some of these kids as ‘anchor babies’ because of their access to citizenship of other ‘greener’ countries under the jus soli.

Indications by the centre for immigration studies in Washington estimates that as many as 36,000 birth tourists go to the United States every year and further identifies that Nigerians represent a strong number of guests from Sub-Saharan Africa.

 

The figures are not unlikely to increase as statistics disclose that 23 percent of Nigeria’s population has access to a combined buying power in excess of US28 billion dollars, mostly made up of professional and middle-class Nigerians whose desire to seek privileges such as better health care services or simply dual citizenship options for their child/children is on the rise.