First City Monument Bank (FCMB) has invested N20 billion to finance private healthcare businesses in Nigeria, targeting a critical sector in need of affordable, long-term capital.
According to the bank, the N20billion Healthcare Fund, announced at the bank’s inaugural healthcare summit in Lagos, will target businesses including hospitals and clinics, diagnostic centres, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies, maternity homes and other healthcare enterprises.
The financing will support expansion, medical equipment purchases, infrastructure, working capital and technology investments.
The bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Yemisi Edun, represented by Executive Director, Corporate Services and Service Management, Felicia Obozuwa described healthcare as a social imperative and an economic priority.
‘Building a strong healthcare system requires capital that is patient, affordable and long-term,’ she said.
She stressed that the fund will form part of a broader healthcare financing offering that combines lending with advisory support and partnerships intended to help businesses strengthen operations and attract capital.
‘The initiative comes as Nigeria seeks to expand healthcare capacity and boost local production of medicines and medical devices. The government is targeting local production of 70% of medicines and medical devices by 2030 under its Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain,’ she said.
The president of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria, Njide Ndili said access to finance remains a major constraint for private healthcare operators.
Ndili cited experience from HFN’s partnership with the PharmAccess Medical Credit Fund, saying that small and medium-sized healthcare businesses can achieve strong repayment performance when financing is combined with technical support, capacity building, and quality standards.
‘HFN will work with FCMB to develop a framework for pre-qualifying healthcare facilities and helping businesses become investment-ready.
‘The federation has more than 400 member organisations and 4,000 professionals. The initiative also addresses a broader challenge for lenders: ensuring that healthcare businesses have the governance, financial reporting, management capacity and growth plans needed to deploy capital effectively,’ she said.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare Iziaq Salako said the federal government has increased public funding for healthcare in recent years.
He added that over N339 billion has been disbursed through the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund over the past 12 years, including N235 billion in the last three years under the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative.
He stressed that N32.9 billion was recently disbursed to support more than 8,300 primary healthcare centres, with plans to expand coverage to about 13,000 facilities nationwide.
He called for greater mobilisation of private and public capital and urged healthcare operators to strengthen corporate governance, improve financial reporting and use blended-finance structures to fund growth.