Stakeholders in the health sector have called for renewed commitment to building Africa’s health resilience through sustainable financing, innovation, and equity-driven reforms aimed at reducing premature deaths and disease burdens across the continent.
Speaking at the 2025 Gatefield Health Summit held Wednesday in Abuja, Mr. Adewunmi Emoruwa, Lead Strategist at Gatefield, posed a thought-provoking question: “Why are Africans dying younger than they should? This loss of potential is the real crisis.”
Emoruwa noted that the average healthy life expectancy in Nigeria stands at 54 years, compared to 64 years in Kenya, 81 years in Europe, and 85 years in Hong Kong. “At 25, a Nigerian has nearly lived half their healthy life,” he said.
He explained that resilience in health requires learning and adapting rather than repeatedly confronting the same crises, citing recurring outbreaks such as Yellow Fever and Lassa Fever, which continue to claim thousands of lives annually across West Africa.
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According to him, health inequities also manifest in consumer products. “Cerelac sold in African markets contains nearly seven kilogram’s of sugar, while the version sold in Europe contains none,” he revealed.
On health financing, Emoruwa lamented that while Africa bears 25 per cent of the global disease burden, it receives only 3 per cent of global health spending. He highlighted that Nigeria’s family planning budget was recently slashed by 97 per cent — from ₦2.2 billion to ₦66 million.
“If just one per cent of Nigeria’s diaspora contributed to systemic health interventions, the country could add 200 million dollars to its health budget,” he said, stressing that Africa could increase healthy life expectancy by over 20 years if resilience and accountability were prioritized.
Also speaking, Dr. Niti Pall, President-elect of the International Diabetes Federation, highlighted the high mortality rate among people with diabetes during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the need for patient empowerment.
“Chronic diseases cannot be treated only in hospitals and secondary healthcare settings. We must empower patients and people living with diabetes to manage their conditions effectively,” Pall said.
In her presentation, Mrs. Kafayat Alawode, Programme Director at Development Governance International Consult, shared new research showing that medical inflation in Nigeria is outpacing general inflation, deepening inequalities in access to life-saving medicines.
Alawode revealed that the cost of anti-diabetes drugs has surged, forcing many Nigerians to spend more than 10 per cent of their income on insulin—and in extreme cases, up to 85 per cent.
She warned that the rising cost of essential medicines threatens treatment adherence and exposes vulnerable patients to preventable complications. She urged policymakers to prioritize local pharmaceutical manufacturing, enhance price transparency, and strengthen public procurement systems to protect citizens from the effects of health inflation.
“The health of citizens should not be subject to market shocks. When the cost of survival is priced beyond reach, resilience becomes impossible,” she said.
Dr. Aisha Mustapha, Consultant Obstetrician and Gynecologists’ at Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, expressed concern that Nigeria continues to record the world’s highest maternal mortality rate.
“After a woman escapes maternal mortality and morbidity, cervical cancer is waiting for her,” she said, calling for stronger advocacy for women’s health through obesity prevention, girl-child vaccination, and cervical cancer screening.
Similarly, Dr. Omokhudu Idogho, Managing Director of the Society for Family Health (SFH), emphasized that health resilience must move beyond concepts to systemic innovations that drive real impact.
“Pandemics have shown that we must embed resilience in health. It’s about moving the needle forward through innovation and collective action,” Idogho said.
The 2025 Gatefield Health Summit, themed “Resilient Health Futures,” focused on tackling the growing burden of non-communicable diseases, drug-resistant infections, fragile health financing systems, and neglected areas such as women’s and mental health across Africa.
