The Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN) has announced plans for its 2023 annual conference, billed for February 3–4, 2023, in Lagos, with the theme “Building the Healthcare of Our Future.”

According to a draft programme released by HFN, Nigeria’s Minister of Health, Dr Osagie E. Ehanire, and Chairman Senate Committee on Health, Sen. (Dr) Ibrahim Oloriegbe, will be in attendance at the conference. Dr Ehanire will declare the conference open, while Sen. Oloriegbe will give legislative remarks.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Shamsuna Ahmed, have also been invited to the conference.

Similarly, UN Secretary-General, Mr António Guterres, WHO Director General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Sokoto State Governor and Chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Aminu Tambuwal, are expected to deliver goodwill messages at the conference which comes up at the Harbour Point, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The 2023 HFN Annual Conference comes amid several challenges facing the healthcare ecosystem in Nigeria, including fiscal policy gaps/implementation deficiencies, monetary policy tightening/unpredictability, depletion of human resources across the healthcare ecosystem/value chain, and insufficient healthcare funding.

The healthcare system also faces insufficient stakeholder collaboration for effective resolution of sectoral challenges, insufficiencies in healthcare sector education, healthcare sector remuneration for industry professionals, among other industry issues.

“These challenges are headwinds that require a structured and collaborative platform to effectively address them and agree a Framework of Action for output implementation. Hence, the imperative for the institutionalisation of a HFN Annual Conference as an integral segment of HFN’s Annual General Meetings,” HFN said in a concept note.

HFN, a coalition of Nigerian private healthcare sector stakeholders, said the 2022 annual conference would seek to highlight critical industry challenges, educate/secure the buy-in of sector regulators and policymakers on the sector issues and their humongous impact on national socioeconomic development, and agree a collaborative Framework of Action with all stakeholders (public/private, development partners, civil society groups, sectoral business membership organisations, etc.) on how to tackle all identified challenges, outlining responsibilities, and an implementation schedule/protocol.

The conference also looks to securing stakeholder commitment for effective sector repositioning through focused implementation of the agreed Framework of Action, HFN said.

To this end, HFN has planned the conference to feature speeches and panel discussions on possible solutions to the highlighted challenges as well as showcase some of the solutions that are already working in the country’s healthcare system that could be replicated for a better healthcare for all.

The draft programme shows that the discussions are divided into segments. The first segment will seek to address the fiscal policy challenges to ease of doing business in Nigeria’s healthcare sector, where Dr Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, is expected to speak on “Fiscal Framework for Promotion of Healthcare Sector Investment in Nigeria”. There will also be a session on “Fiscal Policy: HS Codes Reform, Duty Exemptions, and AfCFTA. Is Healthcare Important Enough? ”

The second segment will dwell on “Healthcare Investment and Financing”, with Babatunde Omilola of African Development Bank (AfDB) as the speaker, while the third segment will concern itself with “Pharmaceutical Sector Issues: From Local Manufacturing, Research and Development, to Drug-Revolving Schemes”.

The fourth segment will focus on “Implementing the New NHIA: Implications of HMOs, Providers and Employers” and will see Mr. Andrew Odum, SAN, FIMC, speak on the topic “Implementing the New NHI: The Difference between the Old NHIS ACT and the New NHIA Act”.

The fifth segment, one of the key highlights of the conference, will be a special session on “Women in Leadership Series (Launching the HFN Women’s Forum)”. Wife of Nigeria’s Vice President, Mrs Oludolapo Osinbajo, First Lady of Lagos State, Dr Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, and Kaduna State Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Baloni, have been invited to grace the session, while Mrs Towun Candide-Johnson, CEO, Gaie, will speak on the topic “How to Harness the Power of Networking”.

The sixth segment will centre on “The Diaspora Dialogue: Addressing the Human Resource Crisis Structures, Systems and Technology”. Under this segment, Dr Pamela Ajayi, HFN President, will speak on “Achieving the UN SDGs Targets on Healthcare in Nigeria: The Clear and Present Danger of Depleting Healthcare Professionals in the Nigerian Healthcare Ecosystem vs. the Paradox of Rising Investment in Nigeria’s Healthcare Industry”.

There will be a roundtable panel session of HFN EXCO with health sector editors of print, electronic, and social media, to be followed by HFN’s Annual General Meeting and election.

The Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN) has been at the forefront of health-care sector advocacy to draw stakeholder attention to the critical issues of all segments of the healthcare ecosystem and champion solution options to those issues.

In February 2022, HFN held a special meeting with Senator Oloriegbe, Senate Health Committee Chairman, which was aimed at forging a new paradigm with the private health sector in order to address critical issues affecting the healthcare sector through collaboration with the parliament to ensure an all-beneficial consensus for the health sector and the populace in general.

HFN also held a national stakeholders’ meeting on the draft National Policy on Incentivising the Health Service Industry in order to present the draft document to critical stakeholders across the public and private sectors.