As Nigerians Seek Specialist Care Abroad, Can Ibom International Hospital Bring Treatment Closer to Home?
By Ndifreke Enefiok, Uyo
Every year, thousands of Nigerians leave the country in search of specialist healthcare that many part of the world consider routine. For many families, the journey costs far more than the price of a plane ticket. It demands months and years of saving, the sale of family assets, and desperate appeals to friends, relatives and even strangers to raise millions of naira for treatment abroad.
Cancer patients travel to India. Children born with congenital heart defects are flown to Israel. Others travel to Turkey, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States for surgeries and medical procedures that are either unavailable or difficult to access at home.
For many families, survival begins with fundraising, emptying their entire savings, with the hope of buying a loved one another chance at life because the treatment they need is unavailable or inaccessible at home.
In November 2014, Swatkasa Gimba became one of those Nigerians.
According to Nigeria Health Watch, Gimba discovered a lump in her breast. The first doctor she consulted dismissed it as nothing to worry about, but she insisted on further investigations. The scans revealed an aggressive HER2-positive tumour that required specialised treatment, including targeted therapy that was not covered by her health insurance.
Despite the severity of her diagnosis, she joined a long waiting list for one of Nigeria’s few radiotherapy machines. By the time her treatment began, her family, church members and even strangers had raised millions of naira to help keep her alive.
More than a decade later, Gimba’s story continues to mirror the experience of thousands of Nigerians every year. Across Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, X and other social media platforms, fundraising appeals have become a familiar sight, carrying photographs, medical reports and bank details of patients desperately seeking support for chemotherapy, surgeries and other life-saving treatments.
Behind every appeal is a family trying to buy time. When multiplied across thousands of patients every year, those individual stories reveal much bigger than personal tragedy. They expose a healthcare system that continues to shift the financial burden of survival onto families, communities and the generosity of strangers.
Even after the money is raised, many patients still have to leave Nigeria before they can receive the care they need. That reality has gradually evolved into one of Nigeria’s biggest healthcare and economic challenges.
According to the Central Bank of Nigeria, Nigerians spent about $684.72 million on a medical-related foreign travel in 2025, a sharp increase from $643.15 million in 2024. An estimate of these medical tourisms according to report now costs the country roughly $2 billion annually through overseas treatment, representing billions of naira that could otherwise strength healthcare infrastructure, create jobs and expand specialist services at home.
Behind those figures are countless stories of delayed surgeries, interrupted cancer treatments, prolonged family separations and difficult financial decisions.
It is this gap that the Akwa Ibom State Government’s investment in the Ibom International Hospital intends to bridge.
On June 23, 2026, Governor Umo Eno, alongside the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, officially unveiled the Ibom International Hospital, the flagship project within the proposed Ibom Medical City.
Conceived as one of the state’s biggest investments in specialised healthcare, the project is expected to serve not only Akwa Ibom residents but also patients from across Nigeria and the West African sub-region who currently travel abroad for complex medical treatment.
The project is coordinated by Tokiye Integrated Medical Services, a Nigerian-founded healthcare development company with 18 years’ experience in designing and managing hospital projects across roughly ten Nigerian states.
Unlike many public hospitals built primarily to expand access to general healthcare services, the Ibom International Hospital has been designed around diseases and conditions that continue to drive medical tourism.
The proposed 350-bed quaternary referral hospital sits on a 100-hectare site spanning Ibiono Ibom, Essien Udim and Ikot Ekpene Local Government Areas. It is expected to provide 62 specialised medical services, with cancer treatment forming one of its major areas of focus.
The broader goal is to reduce outbound medical travel, retain healthcare spending within Nigeria and position Akwa Ibom state as a destination for specialist care in West Africa. The hospital though an investment of Akwa Ibom state government will be privately managed.
Speaking during the official unveiling, Governor Eno described the project as more that another government construction. According to him, what was taking place was neither magic nor political signature but “a statement of vision.”
“This project is not just a construction project; it is an investment in the future health and prosperity of our people,” the governor said.
He also acknowledged the support of President Bola Tinubu, noting that ongoing reforms by the Federal Government had created an enabling environment for states to pursue transformative investments.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Pate, described the project as evidence of “clarity of vision,” noting that it aligns with the Federal Government’s healthcare reform agenda.
“You have shown remarkable commitment and passion for your people. What we are witnessing here reflects the aspirations of the Federal Government’s healthcare reform agenda,” Pate said.
The hospital if completed as schedule in June 2027, promises to be different from the conventional government healthcare investments. Rather than concentrating on a handful of specialist services, the facility has been designed to bring together multiple disciplines within one integrated healthcare system.
Patients diagnosed with complex illnesses will be able to access oncology, cardiology, stroke care, neurosciences, renal dialysis, fertility treatment, maternal and neonatal intensive care and several other specialist services without moving between different hospitals.
For patients living with cancer, the proposed infrastructure could significantly expand treatment options available within Nigeria.
According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer and Global Cancer Observatory, Nigeria recorded 152, 000 new cancer cases and 293,000 people were living with the disease within a five-year prevalence period. Breast, cervical and prostate cancers remain among the country’s most common cancers, while close 80,000 Nigerians die from cancer-related illnesses. Yet specialist oncology infrastructure remains severely limited, contributing to late diagnosis and poor treatment outcomes.
Against that backdrop, the Ibom International Hospital is expected to house a comprehensive radiation oncology centre supported by nuclear medicine services, PET and SPECT molecular imaging, a Linera Accelerator and High Dose Rate (HDR) brachytherapy. Plans also include a cyclotron, a highly specialised facility used to produce radioactive isotopes required for advanced cancer diagnosis and treatment, a technology that remains unavailable in many parts of Africa.
Beyond oncology, the hospital will also feature an AI-assisted diagnostic centre, hybrid operating theatres equipped with intraoperative MRI and CT scanners, robotic surgical suites, advanced catherisation laboratories and a 3-Tesla MRI system designed to improve the accuracy of diagnosis and complex surgical procedures.
But the vision extends beyond treating patients. The wider Ibom Medical City is expected to include pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities, vaccine cold-chain warehouses, medical logistics infrastructure and drug quality testing laboratories, creating a healthcare ecosystem that beyond hospital wards into research drug distribution and healthcare innovation.
There are also plans for a medical hotel to accommodate patients and their relatives during prolonged treatment, while a helipad located a few minutes from the Victor Attah International Airport is expected to support emergency evacuation and improve access for patients travelling from other parts of Nigeria and beyond.
Recognising that reality, the state government has announced plans to sponsor 100 Akwa Ibom indigenes for specialised medical training abroad before the hospital takes off in 2027. The training programme is to expected to prepare doctors, nurses, biomedical engineers and other healthcare professionals that would work in the facility.
Governor Eno also disclosed that his administration has recruited 2,844 healthcare workers since March 2025 as part of efforts to strengthen the state’s healthcare ahead of the expansion.
Beyond manpower, the project has attracted unusual support from Nigeria’s medical professional bodies including the Nigerian Medical Association, the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria, the Association of Resident Doctors, the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and several nursing organisations. Their endorsement suggests that many believe the gaps this hospital is designed to address are real and long overdue for attention.
The project has also been designed with long-term sustainability in mind. Plans include a 2.5-megawatt solar farm to reduce dependence on the national grid, while the hospital is pursuing international sustainability standards through LEED Gold certification. Its architectural design was also developed to reduce heat absorption and lower energy consumption.
The construction of the facility from groundwork to enforcement has also been structured to create employment opportunities for local contractors and young people, who currently make up 70 per cent of the workforce. At the same time, they are receiving technical training in specialised construction processes required for a project of this scale. By the time construction is completed, about 1,500 residents are expected to have worked on the project, with hundreds acquiring skills that could improve their employability, further strengthening the local economy.
What is more, the state government believes the investment could also deliver economic returns. Project projections estimate that the facility could recover its capital investment within eight to ten years while reducing the financial burden many Nigerian families bear in raising money for specialist treatment abroad.
Can Ibom International Hospital bring treatment closer to home? That is the promise behind one of Akwa Ibom’s biggest investments in healthcare. Whether it succeeds is a question that will be answered not by government, but by the thousands of Nigerians who have spent decades looking for beyond the country’s borders for the care they could not find at home.