First City Monument Bank has committed N20 billion to a dedicated Healthcare fund aimed at addressing chronic financing gaps in Nigeria’s private health sector. The facility, unveiled at the bank’s inaugural healthcare summit in Lagos, will provide long-term, affordable capital to hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres, pharmaceutical firms, pharmacies, maternity homes and other healthcare enterprises.
The financing is structured to support expansion, medical equipment acquisition, infrastructure upgrades, working capital and technology investments. Speaking at the launch, Managing Director Yemisi Edun, represented by Executive Director Felicia Obozuwa, described healthcare as both a social imperative and an economic priority. She emphasised that building a resilient health system requires patient capital that matches the sector’s long gestation periods.
The fund forms part of a broader healthcare financing framework that combines lending with advisory services and strategic partnerships designed to strengthen operations and improve creditworthiness. The initiative aligns with the federal government’s target to achieve 70 per cent local production of medicines and medical devices by 2030 under the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain.
Njide Ndili, president of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria, said access to finance remains the binding constraint for private operators. Drawing on experience from the federation’s partnership with the PharmAccess Medical Credit Fund, she noted that small and medium-sized healthcare businesses demonstrate strong repayment performance when financing is bundled with technical assistance, capacity building and quality standards enforcement. The federation, which represents more than 400 organisations and 4,000 professionals, will collaborate with FCMB to develop a pre-qualification framework that helps facilities become investment-ready.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare Iziaq Salako outlined complementary public investments. Over the past 12 years, the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund has disbursed N339 billion, including N235 billion in the last three years under the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative. A recent tranche of N32.9 billion supported more than 8,300 primary healthcare centres, with plans to extend coverage to approximately 13,000 facilities nationwide.
Salako called for greater mobilisation of both private and public capital, urging operators to strengthen corporate governance, improve financial reporting and adopt blended-finance structures to fund growth. The convergence of institutional lending, federation-led capacity building and government-backed primary care investment signals a coordinated push to close Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure deficit.
