A handful of countries that have traditionally been seen as sources have or plan to promote inbound medical tourism, finding patients primarily from within Africa.

Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Guyana, Lesotho, Mali, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe will continue to be a source of outbound medical tourism and a target for other African countries.

ALGERIA
It plans to become a small destination for spas, cosmetic surgery and dentistry.

GHANA
In the early stages of medical tourism development, where services are mainly provided to neighboring countries.

IVORY COAST
See medical tourism as a potential income earner. The new tourism strategy 2025 includes promoting health tourism. The plan is to make the country the fifth largest tourist destination in Africa and the government wants its largest city, Abidjan, to be a regional hub for affordable, quality healthcare.

KENYA
It is developing a strategy to reduce outbound medical tourism. The framework aims to position Kenya as a destination for specialized health services that appeal to both Kenyan and international clients to stem the rising tide of external medical tourism.

MAROCCO
It plans to build 30 new hospitals, including five university hospitals in Tangier, Agadir, Rabat, Laâyoune and Beni Mellal. Regulatory reforms have opened the health sector to more private investment. People who are not doctors (both local and international) have the right to own a private clinic or hospital, but that it is managed by a healthcare professional. This expansion will encourage medical tourism as sub-Saharan countries view Morocco as a health center and Europe sees Morocco as a low-cost provider. Most of the foreign patients in Morocco are of African descent.

NIGERIA
Despite many promises, Nigeria, which is not a poor country, has not spent enough federal or state money to keep up with the growing demand for health care. Often new hospitals are launched claiming that “this will end outbound medical tourism,” but then they are so hungry for operational cash that some have been closed or operating far below capacity.
Medical tourism from Nigeria is the result of successive governments’ refusal to renew the provision of health care in the country. Many Nigerians are pressured to seek treatment overseas due to a lack of trust in local hospitals and medical staff.
Despite widespread reporting of Nigeria’s plans to curb outbound medical tourism by introducing comprehensive universal health care and building more hospitals, attempts to introduce universal health care failed from 2015 to 2020.

RWANDA
Only limited medical facilities are available and for specialist care, people must travel to Kenya or South Africa. But it is making great efforts to stand out as a high-end destination in Africa. There has been a lot of promotion of tourism and investment.

SOUTH AFRICA
The Departments of Health and Tourism are hindering the development of medical tourism in South Africa. Both have taken a neutral stance, intentionally not promoting or supporting it, and highlighting the potential challenges that medical tourism could bring to the South African health system. The challenges they list include widening disparities due to unequal distribution of health care, unintended subsidies for health care costs for foreign patients, the potential redirection of resources from priority local medical needs to those of foreign patients, and the risk of litigation. forensic treatment for failed treatment or post-treatment complications.

Many hospitals and doctors in South Africa are also not interested in promoting medical tourism simply because of the shortage of doctors.

The “surgery and safari” model of medical tourism is outdated and very few agencies have survived or been successful.

Even the massive shift in the local health system from universal health insurance over the next decade will leave little or no room for medical tourism, except in private clinics.

But local policy and agreements with neighboring countries on treating the poor with cross-border care mean that South Africa will be the big-numbers but low-income African giant as much state care is free for cross-border patients.

TANZANIA
Since 2015, the Ministry of Health has transformed the health sector. Investment in specialized services has reduced the number of patients seeking medical treatment abroad. The Ministry of Health sent 200 to 300 patients abroad annually, but that number has dropped to less than 60. The number of people paying for treatment abroad is now believed to be low.
In five years, major investments have increased the availability of specialized services, turning Tanzania into a minor destination for medical tourism.

TUNISIA
He considers health tourism to be a promising niche market capable of relaunching the Tunisian economy. The Tunisian government is building a $ 50 billion Tunisia Economic City, a mega-project dedicated to building hospitals, clinics, research institutes, and other health and wellness facilities.
Tunisia has a huge budget for tourism and this includes the promotion of luxury spas and Thalasso tourism, especially for European seniors. It would have been just a small step to re-promote the cosmetic surgery, dental work and simple surgery that the country was well known for several years ago. It could quickly become a major destination for European and African medical tourists.