On June 4, 2025, during a panel at the Goalkeepers event hosted by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Lagos, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, made a bold appeal:
“What we need to do is to make sure we stop this health tourism, and we should now start producing our own drugs.”
Dangote urged Nigeria to end its dependence on medical tourism, highlighting the successes achieved in areas of business, implying that it’s possible to replicate the same success in the health sector. He stressed the importance of local drug manufacturing and strategic partnerships with global health leaders like Bill Gates to build a more resilient healthcare system.
Should Nigeria focus more on building world-class hospitals and producing its own drugs, or is medical tourism inevitable for the rich?
