Abuja Hospital Group Asks Government to Waive Taxes on Private Hospitals

ABUJA, NIGERIA — Private healthcare providers in the Federal Capital Territory have called on the Federal Government to grant tax exemptions and subsidize power infrastructure, warning that heavy municipal levies and soaring energy bills threaten healthcare affordability. Speaking during a visit by the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NAN chapter), Dr. Musa Shaibu, Group Managing Director of NISA Premier Hospitals, argued that treating medical facilities like commercial hospitality entities imposes an unbearable financial burden on providers.

Highlighting critical operating costs, Dr. Shaibu disclosed that NISA Premier Hospitals spends approximately 40 million naira each month generating its own electricity to keep operating theaters, intensive care units, vaccine refrigerators, and diagnostic laboratories running continuously.

Operational Costs and Hospital Industry Metrics

Disclosures provided by private health facility directors outline the financial parameters and overhead challenges facing urban hospitals:

Technical Mechanics of Energy Overhead and Taxes on Private Hospitals

Understanding the fiscal pressures associated with taxes on private hospitals in nigeria highlights key operational dependencies across the private health sector:

• Constant Cold-Chain and Life-Support Energy: Hospitals require uninterrupted electrical power to operate neonatal incubators, oxygen concentrators, blood bank freezers, and surgical theater lighting, making reliance on expensive diesel generators unavoidable during grid outages.

• Commercial Tax Classification Disincentives: Subjecting private hospitals to corporate taxes and commercial municipal tariffs inflates baseline service charges, which are passed directly to self-paying patients.

• Naira Depreciation and Equipment Procurement: Currency devaluation increases the cost of importing advanced medical diagnostic devices, surgical consumables, and essential pharmaceuticals.

Private Sector Capacity, Internship Bottlenecks, and Out-of-Pocket Costs

Private hospitals deliver a substantial share of urban healthcare across Nigeria, offering essential relief to overcrowded public tertiary hospitals. However, because health insurance coverage remains limited, most urban patients pay for private medical consultations, diagnostic scans, and inpatient hospital admissions entirely out of pocket.

Dr. Shaibu also urged health regulatory bodies to relax restrictive mandatory accommodation rules that prevent well-equipped private facilities from training newly graduated medical house officers. Allowing qualified private hospitals to host housemanship internships would resolve national training bottlenecks while helping retain young clinicians considering emigration to the United Kingdom, North America, or the Gulf States.

Policy Arguments, Public-Private Partnerships, and Healthcare Equity

Supporters of tax relief argue that granting exemptions on medical equipment imports and facility taxes would free up capital for technology upgrades, clinical staffing, and reduced patient billing. However, health economists suggest that any tax waivers should be tied to measurable commitments—such as capped service fees, subsidized emergency care, or expanded coverage for insured low-income patients.

As federal authorities expand public-private partnerships (PPPs) for diagnostic hubs and broaden National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) enrollments, addressing structural operating costs remains critical. Lowering energy overhead and tax burdens for private facilities is essential to keeping quality healthcare accessible for all Nigerians.

Why It Matters: High taxes and diesel generator costs drive up private hospital bills that most Nigerians pay out of pocket; tax relief and energy subsidies could lower care costs and improve medical access.

Source:News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Report, October , 2026 .