Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority’s Healthcare Push Saves Nigeria $200 Million in Medical Tourism*
Nigeria may have finally found a way to keep billions of naira at home instead of flying abroad for treatment.The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), says its investments in local healthcare have saved the country about $200 million in foreign exchange that would have been lost to medical tourism.
The savings are coming through NSIA Advanced Medical Services Limited, MedServe, the Authority’s healthcare arm set up specifically to tackle the problem of Nigerians traveling overseas for cancer treatment and advanced diagnostics. At the heart of it is the MedServe-LUTH Cancer Centre in Lagos, commissioned in 2019 as the first oncology center in the country to offer 3D Conformal Radiotherapy. Today thr center houses the largest concentration of radiotherapy equipment in West Africa.
According to NSIA Managing Director, Aminu Umar-Sadiq, the results have been substantial as well as measurable. Since it opened, the Lagos center has delivered more than 25,000 radiotherapy sessions and 10,000 chemotherapy treatments to about 15,000 patients. Treatment costs, he explained, remain significantly below what patients would pay abroad, in many cases less than half, and that difference alone has prevented huge forex outflows.The impact is going beyond just keeping patients in Nigeria. Umar-Sadiq revealed that the center has recorded instances of reversed medical tourism, with Nigerians being referred back home from overseas providers because of the quality and cost-effectiveness of care available locally. He noted that the need became even clearer during COVID-19 when travel restrictions cut off access to treatment abroad and patients were left stranded.
NSIA has also expanded beyond Lagos. Its diagnostic centers in Kano and Umuahia have provided pathology, radiology and other diagnostic services to more than 410,000 patients as of December 2025. The idea, Umar-Sadiq said, is to translate the authority’s vision into real infrastructure that Nigerians can use without leaving the country.
For years, cancer care, dialysis and complex diagnostics have been among the top reasons Nigerians traveled abroad, draining foreign exchange and putting pressure on families. With MedServe now offering specialized care locally, the NSIA believes it has begun to close that gap while also building capacity for Nigeria to serve patients from the wider region.
The Authority says this is only the beginning as their goal is to continue advancing oncology and diagnostics, and then move into other specialized areas so that quality care is closer to communities and more affordable for the average Nigerian.
