Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy with more than 223 million people, is facing a healthcare crisis that remains largely hidden in plain sight. Fortren & Company tracked over 40,000 registered hospitals, clinics, and health centres across the country’s 36 states and the FCT. While this footprint looks impressive at first glance, the data tells a different story: underinvestment, geographic inequity, workforce depletion, and outdated infrastructure have left Nigeria dangerously ill-equipped to meet the needs of its population.
Our analysis of 40,400 facilities covering metrics from bed capacity to service availability reveals a sobering truth: Nigeria’s healthcare system is structurally misaligned with demand. Yet, with the right policy and investment choices, the system holds immense potential for transformation.
A dense but deeply uneven hospital footprint Nigeria has the numbers but not the balance. Lagos State alone accounts for 2,320 facilities (5.7%), one of the highest densities in Africa at 0.65 facilities per km². By contrast, Yobe and Zamfara average just 0.03 per km².
In Lagos, 80% of residents live within 10 km of a provider. In many northern states, patients travel 30–70 km for basic care. Geography and income, not medical need, largely determine access.
This concentration in Lagos reflects economic gravity: the state contributes over 10% of the national population, more than 25% of GDP, and hosts the headquarters of 70%+ of Nigeria’s banks. But high density doesn’t equal high quality. The reality is that most facilities, even in Lagos, lack the capacity for serious emergencies or inpatient care.
How bad is Nigerian healthcare? Source: Freepik
The real deficit is capability, not facility count Only 8% of Nigerian healthcare facilities have inpatient beds, compared with 35% in South Africa. With just 0.25 beds per 1,000 people, Nigeria ranks among the lowest in the world.
Most facilities are small primary health centres or pharmacies offering outpatient care. While private hospitals like Evercare (165 beds, Lekki) or Lagoon (66 beds, Ikeja) demonstrate world-class standards, the average rural clinic in Kwara or Nasarawa operates with less than 150 sqm of space and no 24-hour staff.
The result is systemic fragmentation: patients are bounced from facility to facility, referrals overwhelm the system, and delays in diagnosis or treatment often prove fatal.
A workforce in crisis: the “Japa” effect The most crippling gap in Nigerian Healthcare is human capital. Nigeria is bleeding talent. Between 2019 and 2022, more than 5,600 doctors migrated abroad.
Our facility-level analysis shows that:
Average doctors per facility: 1.1 Average nurses per facility: 1.4 Average pharmacists per facility: 0.6 For comparison, OECD countries average 3.5 doctors and 8.8 nurses per 1,000 people. Even within Africa, Nigeria lags: South Africa (0.9 doctors/1,000), Egypt (0.8), Kenya (0.6).
In low-income LGAs, more than 40% of facilities operate with fewer than two licensed nurses. Without the staff to deliver care, infrastructure expansion cannot scale, regardless of funding.
One of the lowest bed-to-population ratios globally Despite 40,000 facilities, Nigeria has fewer than 10,000 functional public hospital beds, or just 0.25 per 1,000 people.
Global comparison:
South Africa: 2.3 beds/1,000 India: 0.5 beds/1,000 Germany: 8.0 beds/1,000 WHO minimum: 1.0 beds/1,000 In rural Nigeria, ratios fall below even these averages. During peak malaria seasons, 70% of rural northern centres turn away patients due to bed shortages. This is no longer a planning issue, it is a public safety emergency.
Diagnostics: fragmented, private, and underregulated Diagnostics is a weak link in the Nigerian healthcare system. Fewer than 5% of facilities have in-house labs or imaging services. Most labs are small private operators, many lacking accreditation. Only 18% participate in quality-control programmes.
Without reliable diagnostics, misdiagnosis rises, costs escalate, and national disease surveillance breaks down. Worse, labs operate in silos, with no integration into hospital systems or national databases, leaving Nigeria blind in times of crisis.
Pharmacies: growth without oversight Pharmacies are proliferating, especially in urban fringes, but regulation lags. Our mapping of 3,000 pharmacies revealed:
Only 39% had valid Pharmacy Council of Nigeria (PCN) registrations Just 12% had GPS data 44% had no verifiable owner information This opacity is alarming in a country where counterfeit drugs account for 17% of sales (NAFDAC, 2022). Regulatory reform must prioritise interoperable licensing, inventory tracking, and tech-enabled monitoring.
The rise of private care and exclusion risk: Private operators now account for 60% of new hospitals with 30+ beds, clustered in Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. While these facilities drive innovation and standards, they cater to higher-income patients. Public facilities remain underfunded: healthcare received just 5.75% of the 2023 federal budget, far below the 15% Abuja Declaration target.
Without mechanisms like subsidies or cross-subsidisation, Nigeria risks hardening into a two-tier health system: elite access for a few, systemic neglect for the majority.
The cost of bad data: you can’t improve what you don’t measure Even basic facility data is incomplete. 20% of facilities in our dataset lacked GPS coordinates, staffing levels, or service type details. Without real-time, transparent data, Nigeria cannot allocate resources, attract donor funding, or manage emergencies effectively.
Digitising the national facility registry with live dashboards is a non-negotiable reform.
Opportunities: where investment and policy can shift outcomes Nigeria’s crisis is also its greatest opportunity. Our spatial investment heat map highlights high-need, high-return areas:
Underserved zones with no inpatient beds within 5 km Urbanising LGAs with rising middle-class growth but poor lab/pharmacy penetration Transport corridors with highway or intermodal hubs but no secondary hospitals Priority facility types:
Secondary hospitals with labs and imaging Emergency response centres Digitally integrated diagnostic hubs What must be done In the Nigerian Healthcare System? Solving this requires ecosystem-wide action:
Government:
Launch a National Health Infrastructure Equalisation Fund Digitise the national facility registry into a live public dashboard Incentivise diaspora health professionals to return or invest Enforce bed-density targets by state/LGA Strengthen pharmacy & diagnostics regulation Private investors & developers:
Invest in secondary/tertiary facilities in urban fringes and rural corridors Treat healthcare real estate as an asset class within mixed-use projects Forge blended-finance partnerships with DFIs/NGOs Integrate healthcare into urban planning and estates Communities & individuals:
Mobilise local committees for facility upkeep and accountability Use registered facilities over informal clinics Report counterfeit drugs and negligent practices Embrace preventive healthcare, not just crisis response Regulators:
Create a real-time facility registry Digitise licensing and renewals Mandate quality reporting and harmonise accreditation Trace every drug batch from source to shelf Closing thoughts
Nigeria’s healthcare system sits at a crossroads. The scaffolding exists, but capacity is too thin, access too uneven, and oversight too weak.
If bold action is taken now—systemic, data-driven, and investment-backed, Nigeria can build a healthcare system that doesn’t just treat illness but sustains national resilience. If action is delayed, inequality will deepen, preventable deaths will rise, and long-term economic growth will be at risk.
At Fortren & Company, we are committed to supporting governments, investors, and NGOs in reshaping healthcare infrastructure across Africa. To access our full dataset or commission customised analysis of Nigeria’s healthcare real estate market, reach us at team@fortrenandcompany.com.
