Nigeria’s health indicators have stagnated
or worsened during the past decade. Life
expectancy is 44 years, lower than the Af
rican and developing country average, and
infant mortality is almost double the deve
loping country average. An estimated 3.5
million Nigerians are infected with HIV and
access to prevention, care and treatment is
minimal. The burden of health care financi
ng lies mainly on individuals, with private
expenditures equaling 70 percent of total health expenditures and out-of-pocket
expenditures (OOPs) totaling 90 pe
rcent of private expenditures.