Group laments lack of liver transplant services in Nigeria

The Society for Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to declare a national emergency on viral hepatitis and urgently increase funding for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of liver and other gastrointestinal cancers.

The call was contained in a communiqué issued to newsmen on Sunday at the end of the society’s joint international conference and Annual General Meeting held in Abuja from August 12 to 15, 2026, in collaboration with the African Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Cancer Consortium, African Institute for Liver and Digestive Diseases and Nigerian Cancer Society.

SOGHIN said hepato-pancreato-biliary diseases and cancers continued to impose a heavy health burden on Nigerians, with deaths worsened by the high cost of specialised medical care.

The society said, “HPB diseases and cancers in Nigeria continue to cause exceptionally high mortality rates, worsened by the astronomical and prohibitive costs of specialised care.”

It also expressed concern over inadequate government funding for the screening, early diagnosis and management of gastrointestinal and HPB malignancies.

“There is a critical deficit—and in some tiers, a near-total absence—of government funding dedicated to the screening, early diagnosis, and management of GI and HPB malignancies,” the society said.

SOGHIN further lamented the absence of liver transplantation services in Nigeria, saying patients requiring the life-saving procedure were forced to seek treatment abroad at enormous costs.

“Liver transplantation services remain entirely unavailable within Nigeria,” while the cost of seeking the intervention abroad was “completely out of reach for the average citizen”, it added.

To reverse the trend, the medical body urged governments at all levels to declare an emergency on viral hepatitis prevention and control.

It said, “Viral hepatitis” should be treated as a national emergency, noting that the disease is the “leading driver of hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) in Nigeria.”

The society also called on the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to formally involve SOGHIN in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of national policies on viral hepatitis and digestive health.

It urged the government to invest heavily in grassroots public awareness campaigns, while providing subsidies for hepatitis B diagnostic tests and therapies and free hepatitis B vaccination for adults.

SOGHIN further demanded increased funding for tertiary healthcare facilities to modernise diagnostic and treatment centres and expand access to advanced technologies for managing complex gastrointestinal and HPB conditions.

It also called for stronger collaboration between government institutions, the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment and international partners to fund research, train healthcare professionals and promote locally relevant clinical advancements.

The conference, themed “Collaborating to Improve Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Cancer Control in Africa: Prevention, Treatment, Research, and Survivorship,” attracted more than 400 participants from the United States, Canada, Europe, China, Japan and over 30 African countries.