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| Columnist: Daniel Chimezie |
INTRODUCTION
As diverse
as human cultures and beliefs are, it is justifiable to say that all humanity
derives from one source of life. Most religions believe that man emanated from
a creator, so it could be argued that all human beings and cultures came out of
an original family. Thus, despite the seemingly differences among countries and
cultures, there are still broad areas of similarities.
THE INDIA-AFRICA CONNECTION
A lot of
similarities also exist between India and Africa. According to a publication in
the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian Newspaper (April 15, 2011), the African
continent is separated from the sub-continent of India only by the Indian
Ocean. The publication argues that before the invention of modern navigational
ships and equipment, there has been exchange of people and ideas between Africa
and India. These shared experiences between India and Africa form enough
justification for co-operation between them to overcome the challenges of
development in both parts of the World.
THE INDIA-NIGERIA CONNECTION
The
Nigerian-Indian experience is an extension of the Indian-African experience.
There are many things that are common between India and Nigeria. Apart from the
shared diverse cultural heritage, India represents the biggest democracy in the
World while Nigeria is the biggest democracy in Africa. The Fact sheet on bilateral
cooperation provided by the High Commission of India in Nigeria indicates that
similarities in colonial struggle against the British, large multi-ethnic,
multi-religious and developing societies have created bilateral affinity. The
factsheet also indicates that both Nigeria and India share common perspectives
on international political, social and development issues. India-Nigeria’s
relation cuts across the political, economic and cultural divide. The Fact
sheet also shows that in recent years, Nigeria has been one of the main sources
of crude for India providing 8% to 12% of India’s crude requirements thereby
playing an important role in Indian energy security. Nigeria remains the
largest trading partner of India in Africa while providing the largest market
in Africa for Indian exports. In 2011-2012, bilateral annual trade turnover was
over US $17.3 billion registering an impressive growth of over 34%.
The factsheet
also indicates that India has huge investments in Nigeria’s upstream sector
with multiple investments in telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, steel and
power transmission sectors and other strategic sectors.
BEYOND THE FIGURES
Figures
aside, evidence abound of a long-term healthy relationship between India and
Nigeria. I have a first-hand experience. When I became the Editor-in-Chief of
the Nigerian Economics Students Association (NESA), University of Benin
Chapter, I was saddled with the responsibility of producing the ‘Economist’
magazine, an annual publication of the Association. As I was going through past
editions of the magazine, I found in the oldest edition I could trace
(published in 1983), that about half of the Lecturers in the department as at
that time were Indians. This at least means that Indians have contributed to
the Nigerian educational system and serves as an evidence of a relationship
that has endured.
ROOM FOR EXPANSION: EXPLORING
OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTHCARE DELIVERY.
However,
there is room for expansion on existing partnership between India and Nigeria.
One area of partnership that India and Nigeria need to exploit further is the
area of healthcare. This is because of the critical importance of health in
driving productivity and national development. Issues concerning health have
always captured global attention with health issues including the reduction of
child mortality, improving maternal health and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and
other diseases forming the core agenda in the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). Although, Nigeria and India share similar historical experiences in the
challenges of healthcare, it is worthy to note that India has made more
appreciable progress in this regard.
INDIA’S EXPLOITS IN HEALTHCARE
DELIVERY.
India has
developed a healthcare system that is self-sustaining and which presents a
lesson to other countries of the World. According to the Economist (April 16,
2009), Indian entrepreneurs are channeling the country’s rich technological
and medical talent towards frugal approaches that have much to teach the rich
World’s bloated healthcare system. The Indian healthcare system remains a major
revenue earner to India through high-end tourism. India’s spectacular
performance in the area of healthcare could be attributed to an efficient
private sector healthcare system existing side by side with a public healthcare
system with private providers which include qualified and alternative private
practitioners accounting for about 80% of all healthcare delivered in
India(Lath, n.d).
THE NIGERIAN UGLY EXPERIENCE IN
HEALTHCARE DELIVERY
The Nigerian
experience is quite a contrast to the Indian healthcare system. Healthcare
delivery in Nigeria is still faced with problems of quality of healthcare and
the problems of accessibility to healthcare. According to Professor Peter
Nwangwu(n.d), the problems of quality of healthcare in Nigeria include the
thorny issue of adequacy of healthcare facilities and systems, including
healthcare policies at medical centers, adequacy of standard operating
procedures at these centres, adequacy of the level and scope of care provided
by physicians and nurses in light of current knowledge and accepted standards
of medical practice in current world medical literature. He also identified the
problem of accessibility to include the evaluation of the adequacy of the
numbers of healthcare facilities and the proper distribution of these
facilities to allow easy and immediate access to a medical facility for every
patient who needs one, the affordability, and therefore the accessibility of
quality healthcare to all patients. After spending trillions of naira through
the Nigeria’s MDGs office, the Millennium Development Goals Report (2010) for
Nigeria still indicates that the proportion of births attended by a skilled
health worker stands at only 38.9%.
Because of
the challenges facing the healthcare system of Nigeria, the country faces a
huge dilemma. The dilemma derives from the fact that Nigeria spends about $500
million annually on medical tourism abroad (Thisday, October 23, 2012). This
poses a question on the reliability of the Nigerian healthcare system. The
bigger question is that the medical tourism is undertaken by public officials
who should put in place an efficient healthcare system for the country. The
fact that these public officials can easily seek quality healthcare abroad
(leaving the masses at home with an under-performing healthcare system)
provides an incentive for these officials to run down Nigeria’s healthcare
system through corrupt practices including the diversion of resources budgeted
for healthcare delivery to private use.
THE BASIS FOR PARTNERSHIP: A PROPOSAL
FOR A PRIVATE-SECTOR LED HEALTHCARE PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN NIGERIA AND INDIA.
The fact that India has made appreciable progress in quality
healthcare service delivery therefore provides a basis for partnership with
Nigeria (whose healthcare service delivery remains inefficient). As a Student
of Economics, the case I make here is largely economic in nature. The Indian
example could be replicated in Nigeria by encouraging Indian entrepreneurs to
invest massively (with the support of Nigeria’s financial markets) in the
provision of quality, affordable and accessible healthcare services. This
should be facilitated through the existing India/Nigeria Bi-National Commission.
The initial phase of the healthcare investment projects would be the
establishment of a model Indian hospital in each of the 36 states of the
Nigerian federation and a latter phase would be the establishment of primary
healthcare centres in the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the country.
While the Indian investors would provide the investment finance for the
establishment of the healthcare facilities, the Nigerian government (at the
federal, state and local government levels) would be saddled with the task of
providing the enabling environment for these investments to thrive.
Specifically, the Nigeria’s ministry of Trade and Investment,
her Indian counterpart and the Indian High Commission in Nigeria are expected
to collaborate to ensure that all artificial hurdles that would inhibit the
take-off of these healthcare investment projects are taken care of. The
Nigerian government is also expected to grant tax concessions at the early
stage of development of these healthcare projects until they grow to maturity.
INDIA/NIGERIA:
OPPORTUNITY FOR SHARED GROWTH
Such investment in the Nigerian healthcare system provides
opportunities for mutual benefit for both countries. While Nigeria would have
been able to solve the problems of quality and accessibility of healthcare
services and deliver fuller lives to Nigerians, returns from such investments
would be repatriated to India to add more value to the Indian economy.
Alternatively, such returns could be re-invested across Africa in order to reposition
India to play a more formidable role in the global economy as an emerging World
power. This would also strengthen the existing India-Nigeria’s relations and by
extension, the India-Africa relations.
CONCLUSION
It is important that the youths are integrated into this
proposed partnership to ensure sustainability into the future. When India
partners with Nigeria in replicating India’s efficient healthcare system in
Nigeria, it would provide opportunities for shared growth between the two
countries and improve the lot of humanity in general.
Daniel Chimezie is a final year student of Economics and Statistics at the University of Benin.