– Says It will worsen healthcare costs
Mary Nnah
The Healthcare Providers’ Association of Nigeria, HACPAN, has rejected the proposed National Health Facility Regulatory Agency of Nigeria Bill, NHFRA, warning it will create more bureaucracy, duplicate existing laws, and ultimately drive up the cost of healthcare for ordinary Nigerians.
Speaking during a recent press briefing in Ikeja, Lagos, HACPAN National President, Dr. Austine Aipoh, said the association supports improved regulation and patient safety, but that creating a new federal agency is the wrong approach.
“While HACPAN strongly supports improved healthcare regulation, higher standards of patient safety, enhanced quality assurance and greater accountability. We respectfully oppose the establishment of the proposed agency in its entirety because it creates unnecessary duplication of existing regulatory structures”, Dr. Aipoh said.
Dr. Aipoh, who also presented HACPAN’s memorandum at a Senate public hearing on July 9, 2026, questioned the impact of the bill.
“We have a lot of challenges facing us, so this bill has not made any difference. Has it made the patient safer? No. Has it made universal health coverage realizable? No. What it has done to the healthcare system is null, is zero, as far as HACPAN is concerned.”
He argued that Nigeria already has an extensive regulatory framework, including the Federal Ministry of Health, State Ministries of Health, the NHIA, the MDCN, the PCN, the NMCN, and other professional councils. The proposed NHFRA, he warned, will only add another layer that providers will pay for.
“If enacted, healthcare providers may be subjected to multiple inspections, multiple accreditations, multiple certifications, multiple regulatory fees, and overlapping enforcement actions.
“Rather than simplifying healthcare regulation, the Bill risks creating additional bureaucracy that will increase compliance costs without necessarily improving patient outcomes.”
The HACPAN President’s biggest concern was the effect on patients.
His words: “Setting up a national regulatory agency will create loss of funds; it will create more money being charged by providers, and ultimately, the patients will not be able to afford it. Whatever burden you feel economically, who bears the brunt? The common man out there will bear the brunt. Much more than even the man who owns a car.”
He also criticized a clause in the bill allowing the agency to use “franchisees” for inspections, saying it shows the government already lacks capacity. After you have not started something, you are already saying that you don’t have enough manpower.
“If you want to build a house and you don’t have enough blocks, you don’t start laying the foundation. So, for them to say they want to set up that body by themselves, they have knocked themselves out.”
HACPAN is calling on the National Assembly to withdraw the bill in its current form, strengthen existing regulatory institutions instead of creating a parallel agency, harmonize the mandates of current regulators to eliminate duplication, and invest proposed resources in digitization, inspection capacity, and quality improvement.
“Nigeria does not necessarily need another healthcare regulator. What Nigeria needs is stronger coordination among the regulators that already exist. Nigerians should look deep. This agency will not make life better for Nigerians; it will make it worse,” Dr. Aipoh noted further.
For over 20 years, HACPAN has represented private hospitals, clinics, labs, pharmacies and maternity homes nationwide.
The association says it remains committed to reforms that strengthen, not complicate, the health system.