Health Care Takes Precedence In Nigeria’s Hierarchy Of Needs

Compared to the situation ten years ago, Nigerians now spend more on luxury, health and non essentials; statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Consumer Price Index (CPI) shows.

According to the CPI report, price of consumer goods and services purchased by households, indicates that healthcare spend rose by 3 percent, from 13.6 index value  in 2003 to 30.04 in 2012.

The CPI report specifically shows that spending on food as a percentage of income has dropped to 50.7 percent from 63.7 percent in 2003.

It indicated an increased spending by Nigerians on clothing with a 76.5 weighting (7.65%) from 32.1 (3.2%) from ten years ago.

Spending on furnishing and household equipment followed, with a 50.2 weighting from 38.2 in the period under review. Other high areas of increased spending include education and health.

The rise in healthcare weighting indicates that more and more Nigerians are purchasing healthcare products on the back of growing non-communicable diseases among the middle class. Disease conditions like cancer, hypertension, diabetes and obesity have been on the increase lately, due to new consumption habits which now take a portion of Nigerians spend on food, , Business day reported.

Doyin Salami, an economist and member of faculty at the Lagos Business School (LBS), said, “Nigerians are spending less on food, which reflects the changing hierarchy of needs, as we move away from a subsistence economy to a living economy .”

“There is an increase in lifestyle and recreation spending,” he said, adding that Nigerians are increasingly heading to private hospitals and schools for better healthcare and education, which is invariably leading to higher spending on those items.

Dayo Shobamowo, a physician and healthcare management consultant, the increase of CPI for healthcare is as a result of increases in the prices of drugs and others.

“I believe that the increase of CPI for healthcare in Nigeria from 1.3% to 3% is a result of increases in the price of drugs, medical equipment and other hospital overheads like power, rather than an increase in the remuneration of medical workers in Nigeria. Most drugs and other medical equipment used in Nigeria are also imported with foreign exchange and their increasing prices are a consequence of the lowering value of the Naira over time,” Shobamowo said.

Statistics made available at the recently concluded education fairs of both Canadian schools and British universities, show that Nigerians are estimated to spend between N200 billion and N300 billion yearly on foreign education for their children. Nigerians are also estimated to spend about $8 billion U.S. dollars annually on medical tourism.

Increased urbanisation is also driving the changing spending patterns. It is estimated that by 2016, over 500 million Africans will live in urban centres, according to McKinsey, a business intelligence and research firm and the number of cities with more than 1 million people is expected to reach 65, compared with 52 in 2011,with many of them located in Nigeria.

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