NSE, lawyers seek ways to improve Nigeria’s health sector

Financial experts at the Nigerian Stock Exchange in conjunction with legal practitioners are seeking ways to leverage and improve Nigeria’s health sector.

They said that the capital market was one of the best instruments to help fund the health sector in Nigeria.

These were coming at a time when COVID-19 pandemic has exposed Nigeria’s weak and underfunded health care sector.

Speaking at the 2020 Capital Market Solicitors Association’s virtual annual business luncheon, Lamido Yuguda, Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission, said the health sector was grossly underfunded.

Yuguda said the health care sector was in need of infrastructure and manpower, adding that the sector needs investment from public and private sectors.

He explained that infrastructure financing of the health care sector required long-term financing, and the capital market will be able to fund the sector.

During his keynote address, Olabode Agusto, Chairman, advisory board of First Cardiology Consultants, said the biggest risk that the pool of savings would face is inflation risk, and this is because the long-term rate of inflation on naira is about 12 per cent per annum.

Agusto said the implications was that savings held in naira, and debts that will be repaid in fixed naira terms will lose purchasing power at about 12 per cent per annum.

According to him, it also means that the returns earned from investing in the pool of savings (net of costs) must be at least 12 per cent per annum, to protect the buying power of the savings.

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