Nigeria is losing at least $400 million annually in productivity to hypertension, while government investment in prevention and control remains far below required levels, the Legislative Initiative for Sustainable Development, LISDEL, has said.
The organisation also disclosed on Thursday that only about 4 per cent of Nigerians living with hypertension have their blood pressure under control.
LISDEL said the low control rate leaves the majority exposed to fatal complications including stroke, heart disease, diabetes, disability and other non-communicable diseases, NCDs.
Policy Officer, LISDEL, Olympus Ade-Banjo, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja while speaking on “Economic Case Analysis and Recommendations on Hypertension/NCD” during a masterclass on reporting the underfunding of hypertension and other NCDs in Nigeria, with emphasis on the 2025 and 2026 federal budget cycles.
Ade-Banjo said the economic burden of hypertension extends beyond deaths, as patients and their families are forced to spend substantial amounts on lifelong treatment, while the country loses productive hours when affected persons are unable to work.
According to him, available data indicate that between 30 and 37 per cent of treated hypertension patients achieve their target blood pressure, suggesting that adherence to treatment remains a major challenge even among those who have been diagnosed and placed on medication.
“This is beyond awareness. The first one is an issue of being aware that you have hypertension. The second one is being able to adhere, being able to continue to buy those drugs,” he said.
He said that an estimated 30 to 38 per cent of the Nigerian population is not adequately sensitised about hypertension, a situation he said translates into tens of millions of people in a country with a large population.
Ade-Banjo noted that inadequate knowledge could also encourage harmful misconceptions about the causes of hypertension and delay access to appropriate medical care.
According to him, the financial burden on households was equally alarming, with an average household spending between $20 and $55 monthly on hypertension-related care.
He explained that such expenditure could push vulnerable families into what health economists describe as “impoverishment”, where healthcare costs force households to choose between treatment and basic necessities.
“Imagine 48.2 per cent of people that are affected by hypertension are exposed to impoverishment. It is making you choose between health or food,” he said.
He further said hypertension and related NCDs were imposing a substantial economic cost on Nigeria through lost productivity, noting that the estimated minimum annual productivity loss is $400 million, although some years have recorded significantly higher losses.
He expressed concern that government funding for hypertension prevention and control does not reflect the scale of the challenge.
According to him, only 0.05 per cent of Nigeria’s health budget in 2025 was allocated to hypertension, while the funding requirement represents a far greater proportion.
He said the country currently has an estimated 99.8 per cent gap in government investment required for effective hypertension control.
On NCDs generally, Ade-Banjo said only about six per cent of the health budget goes towards the broad category, despite NCDs accounting for more than 30 per cent of deaths in the country.
He also disclosed that only about 10 per cent of activities contained in the government’s multisectoral action plans for combating hypertension had been implemented, leaving a shortfall of about 90 per cent.
The unimplemented activities, he said, include public awareness, research, access to medicines, service delivery and other interventions required to strengthen prevention and control.
He said evidence from interventions implemented with partners showed that Nigeria could achieve better outcomes if resources were strategically deployed.
He cited the ACTS programme, which focuses on standard treatment protocols, task-sharing, patient registration and monitoring, health insurance linkages and digital platforms for tracking and supporting patients.
According to him, the programme demonstrates that hypertension outcomes can improve when primary healthcare facilities are empowered to manage uncomplicated cases and patients receive consistent access to medicines and follow-up care.
He said improvements recorded under such interventions included a 2.7 per cent increase in blood pressure control, a 2.1 per cent improvement in diabetes control, a 4.8 per cent increase in patients receiving treatment and a 5.2 per cent rise in registered patients.
“These things can be done. It works if we are able to do all of those different activities by, for instance, providing the drugs at the right time, empowering the facilities to go out to do the outreaches, putting them on a digital platform and tracking each of the patients and lastly, of course, monitoring the progress,” he said.
Ade-Banjo said stronger investment in hypertension control could also deliver significant economic and health benefits over the long term.
He disclosed that an investment of about $1.7 billion over 15 years, representing more than $113 million annually, could generate substantial returns through lives saved, deaths averted and productivity preserved.
He further identified primary healthcare centres as the most efficient platform for delivering hypertension and other NCD interventions, saying they could reduce costs for patients by bringing services closer to communities.
According to him, patients accessing primary healthcare services spend significantly less on care than those who rely on tertiary facilities, particularly because of reduced transportation and associated costs.
He therefore urged the Federal Government to prioritise the release, rather than merely the allocation, of funds for NCD programmes.
Among the recommendations, he said the national NCD programme should receive dedicated budget lines providing an immediate investment of about $113 million annually, while the ACTS programme should be expanded to primary healthcare delivery points nationwide.
He also called for patients and affected communities to be incorporated into the design, implementation and monitoring of government health programmes.
Ade-Banjo said the recommendations were still being refined through stakeholder engagement before being presented to the relevant ministry as policy advice.
He also urged journalists covering hypertension and NCDs to adopt solutions journalism, arguing that reporting should not only highlight the scale of the crisis but also examine interventions capable of producing measurable improvements.