Blood Donation in Nigeria

1. How safe and secure is Nigeria's blood bank?

Nigeria doesn’t have a centralised blood supply body like the UK does with NHS Blood and Transplant. The blood supply system here is fragmented – the private hospitals rely on private blood banks.

The closest approximation to a national blood bank is the NBTS, National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), which collects only about 66,000 units per year and currently operates from 17 centres across the six geo-political zones including 11 capital intensive screening centres that thoroughly screen donated blood for HIV 1 &2, Syphilis, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C using advanced blood screening technology, including rapid test kits to execute pre-donation screening for transfusion transmissible infections (TTI).

The blood banking system in Nigeria is still poorly developed as a number of centers depend on paid donors whose hematological and infectious status may not be determined often times prior to blood donations.

Nigeria has one of the lowest rates of donation by voluntary non-remunerated blood donors, widely recognised as the basis for a safe and sufficient national blood supplies

Only about 5% of donor bloods used in Nigeria come from voluntary donors; family replacements and paid donors are still the major sources of donor blood procurement.

2. How available is safe blood for citizens?

Limited. Patients die in hospitals due to inadequate safe blood at blood banks in Nigeria. Despite the imperative need for blood, there is a yawning shortfall in the level of access to safe blood. According to reports, the average donation rate in developed countries is 38.1 donations/1000 populations, 7.5 in transitional countries, and 2.3 donations per 1000 population in developing countries, including Nigeria.

Certain factors contribute to the paucity of safe blood availability, these include: 

1. Inadequate information about safe blood donation through electronic and print media; 

2. People’s phobia of being detected as HIV positive persons; 

3. People’s phobia of possible contraction of HIV in the hospitals through blood donation; 

4. Federal and state governments’ non-commitment and support for effective national, state and local safe blood programs; 

5. Inadequate blood banks and equipment in hospitals and other health facilities; 

6. Inadequate trained professional staff to manage blood banks professionally; 

7. Inadequate funds to establish more blood banks, as well as manage the existing ones; etc.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, there has been some significant innovation within the biotech space to help widen the access to safe blood. Startups such as LifeBank, have successfully joined forces with Google Africa to address the logistical and inventory challenges posed by navigating through a patchwork of unconnected private blood banks to locate and deliver safe blood in a timely and efficient manner to patients in Lagos and Abuja.

3. What is the Federal Ministry of Health's policy regarding safe blood?

The policy of the Ministry revolves around utilising mass media campaign, and increased and sustainable funding. That is, to mobilise public health media campaigns, from social media, to radio, and television, to encourage all fit and well-meaning Nigerians to come forth to donate blood - at least thrice a year for women and four times a year for men, and educate the public about the importance of discarding  cultural and religious myths for today’s scientific ways of improving and saving lives through safe blood donations and transfusions in Nigeria; and to earmark federal and state government funding to increase the number of blood banks across the country, employ qualified health personnel to manage the existing blood banks in Nigerian health facilities, and provide market incentives to the private sector to stimulate investment into the local blood bank capacity. 

4. How much does safe blood in Nigeria cost?

According to a price survey, the he average cost to collect, test and store a unit of blood is about $94. Cost to patients: About 5,000 naira ($13.93) per unit if blood is available

In private hospitals patronized by a large population of Nigerians, the cost of blood is higher. A pint of blood, fir example, may cost between N15, 000 and N 25, 000, depending on the blood group, that is AB, O- and O+.

Further, while blood donation is free, when donating blood for a relative or patient directly, hospitals will generally charge an administrative fee for screening the blood, which could range from N1500 – N10,000.

Moreover, the above costs have not been adjusted to reflect current inflationary pressures, which may hike up costs. 

Nevertheless, there are NGOs, such as LifeBlood, doing tremendous work to plug the yawning gap for affordable access to safe blood. In addition to launching campaigns to raise awareness about the imperative of blood donation, they have collated thousands of blood and moved them to hospitals in every community where it got them.