IVF pioneer Dr Ibrahim Wada has renewed calls for infertility treatment to be covered under Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Authority scheme
Dr Ibrahim Wada, chief executive of Nisa Premier Hospital and one of Nigeria’s pioneering IVF specialists, has renewed his call for infertility treatment to be covered under the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), arguing that the cost of fertility care remains out of reach for most Nigerians.
Speaking to The Daily Circular in a “10 Quick Qs” interview, Wada said IVF and infertility care should be treated with the same urgency as conditions already covered by national insurance.
Why Wada wants fertility care under NHIA
“IVF and infertility care should be part of the national health insurance,” he said. “What is too expensive for them should be added, not malaria and typhoid and all those things, they’ve been managing on those levels for years. Where they need the help of the NHIA is where they have big problems: cancer, God forbid, major surgeries, in vitro fertilisation, and so on.”
He said Nigeria has become an attractive, low-cost destination for IVF for patients travelling from abroad, even as many Nigerians still cannot afford treatment at home.
This is not the first time Wada has made the appeal. In July 2025, speaking at Nisa Premier Hospital’s Infertility Awareness Walk in Abuja, he called on the federal government to include fertility treatment under the National Health Insurance Scheme, noting that one in six couples struggles with infertility and that treatment costs are often beyond the reach of the average Nigerian.
Wada’s track record in Nigerian fertility care
Wada, who performed Nigeria’s first government-verified IVF birth, Baby Hanatu, in 1998, said stigma around fertility treatment has eased among educated, urban Nigerians but persists in rural communities, where he said more public enlightenment is still needed.
He described infertility as a shared responsibility between men and women, and said the technology behind IVF is no longer confined to private clinics in major cities but is steadily reaching more parts of the country.
Nisa Premier Hospital, which Wada founded in 1996, has since recorded more than 5,000 IVF births, according to hospital records.
