A CBN report said this was disclosed at the last Monetary
Policy Committee meeting.
It said, “The bank has also cumulatively disbursed the sum
of N108.65bn to hospitals and pharmaceutical industry; 54 of the 117 projects
funded are for hospital services.
“The committee was gratified that the funding under health
sector has resulted in the establishment of two new cancer centres, over 59 MRI
and more than 42 CT scan centres in Nigeria, within the last 18 months.”
The CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said recently that
medical tourism was putting a huge strain on the country’s foreign reserves.
Emefiele said the CBN and other banks would support the
healthcare sector to reverse the trend.
He said, “Medical tourism puts a huge strain on our foreign
reserves, and more importantly, for every $1bn allocated to medical treatment
abroad, there is less than $1bn that could be available to other critical
sectors of our economy.
“As part of this effort, the CBN and select private sector
stakeholders supported COVID-19 intervention initiatives through CACOVID.”
He said to further drive the recovery of the economy, the
monetary policy recognised that while the interventions in the manufacturing
sector were essential, it was also important to continue to give support to the
medical sector.
He encouraged banks to lend and the private sector to also
invest in the country.
Emefiele said the CBN would tell the banks to help
restructure the loan facilities of the hospital as it was pleased with the
project.
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