Nigeria’s health sector faces acute challenges even as innovators redefine its future.
Public financing remains well below global benchmarks: the 2024 federal budget allocated about N1.34 trillion to health just around 4.6% of the total budget far short of the 15% Abuja Declaration target.
Many states also under‑spend on health relative to their budgets, with actual execution rates lagging allocations. Out‑of‑pocket payments, though improving, still account for a majority of health spending, reaching about 58.3% in 2024, exposing households to financial hardship.
Health outcomes remain uneven: Nigeria’s under‑five mortality rate is among the world’s highest at over 100 deaths per 1,000 live births, while infant and neonatal deaths also persist at worrying levels. Maternal mortality continues to drive concern, with the country contributing a substantial share of global maternal deaths due to limited access to quality obstetric care.
Despite these systemic gaps in funding, infrastructure, and outcomes, visionary women founders are leading solutions from supply chain innovations and primary care platforms to diagnostics, health education, and community‑driven services—transforming Nigeria’s health landscape and expanding access to quality care across communities.
Fola Laoye has spent more than two decades shaping Nigeria’s private healthcare sector first as an operator, and now as an investor.
As co-founder and chief executive of Iwosan Investments Limited, she oversees a platform focused on building and scaling healthcare assets, including Iwosan Lagoon Hospitals. The firm represents her shift from running healthcare businesses to backing them, deploying capital into a sector long constrained by underinvestment.
Laoye’s influence in the industry predates Iwosan. She was a founding board member of Hygeia Group Nigeria, the parent company of Lagoon Hospitals and Hygeia HMO—where she served as chief executive from 2002 to 2012 and later as chairperson.
During that period, she helped institutionalize private healthcare delivery in Nigeria, combining insurance and provider networks in a model that would become increasingly relevant.
Her earlier career included a stint at the Investment Fund for Health in Africa, one of the continent’s first private equity funds dedicated to healthcare, reinforcing her long-standing focus on the sector.
Beyond healthcare, Laoye holds multiple board roles across financial services and retail, including at Old Mutual Life Assurance, FSDH Asset Management and Shoprite Nigeria, reflecting a broader footprint in corporate governance.
A graduate of the University of Lagos, she later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and trained as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young and PwC in London.
These healthcare juggernauts don’t get enough of their flowers. They’re doing amazing! Especially those on the services side