Federal medical centers (FMC) have a long history in Nigeria dating as far back as the immediate post-independence era. Most of them (especially the old ones) started off as departmental health facilities before being converted to an FMC. For instance, FMC Ebute-Metta (probably the oldest FMC in the country) was established in 1964 as a department of health services of the Nigerian Railway Corporation but was designated a full-fledged FMC by the Obasanjo administration in 2004. FMCs are multi-specialist hospitals and deliver tertiary healthcare same as teaching hospitals do. This article is a snippet of the FMCs in Nigeria, their geographical distribution and their budgetary allocations.
There are 20 FMCs in the country (excluding Federal Teaching Hospitals). They are listed below along with their geographical spread.
| Federal Medical Center | State | Geographical zone |
| FMC Umuahia | Abia | South-East |
| FMC Owerri | Imo | South-East |
| FMC Owo | Ondo | South-West |
| FMC Ebutte Metta | Lagos | South-West |
| FMC Abeokuta | Ogun | South-West |
| FMC Asaba | Delta | South-South |
| FMC Yenagoa | Bayelsa | South-South |
| FMC Makurdi | Benue | North-Central |
| FMC Bida | Niger | North-Central |
| FMC Lokoja | Kogi | North-Central |
| FMC Keffi | Nasarawa | North-Central |
| FMC Abuja | FCT | North-Central |
| FMC Nguru | Yobe | North-East |
| FMC Yola | Adamawa | North-East |
| FMC Azare | Bauchi | North-East |
| FMC Jalingo | Taraba | North-East |
| FMC Gusau | Zamfara | North-West |
| FMC Birnin Kudu | Jigawa | North-West |
| FMC Katsina | Katsina | North-West |
| FMC Birnin-Kebbi | Kebbi | North-West |
There is an uneven spread of FMCs across the country, with most (twice the number in the south) of them located in northern Nigeria: 7 in the South (SE-2, SS-2-, SW-3) and 13 in the North (NC-5, NE-4, NW-4).
Next let’s look at how much each FMC gulps per year.
| Federal Medical Center | Total recurrent (Billion NGN) | Total Capital (Billion NGN) | Total allocation (Billion NGN) |
| FMC Umuahia | 5.17 | 0.97 | 6.14 |
| FMC Owerri | 6.59 | 0.89 | 7.48 |
| FMC Owo | 4.66 | 0.25 | 4.91 |
| FMC Ebutte Metta | 2.53 | 0.79 | 3.32 |
| FMC Abeokuta | 5.60 | 0.35 | 5.95 |
| FMC Asaba | 4.77 | 1.44 | 6.20 |
| FMC Yenagoa | 6.12 | 0.57 | 6.71 |
| FMC Makurdi | 5.23 | 0.37 | 5.59 |
| FMC Bida | 3.73 | 1.12 | 4.85 |
| FMC Lokoja | 3.47 | 0.69 | 4.16 |
| FMC Keffi | 8.94 | 0.45 | 9.39 |
| FMC Abuja | 2.03 | 0.25 | 2.29 |
| FMC Nguru | 2.90 | 0.27 | 3.17 |
| FMC Yola | 3.51 | 0.27 | 3.78 |
| FMC Azare | 2.32 | 0.79 | 3.10 |
| FMC Jalingo | 3.15 | 0.38 | 3.53 |
| FMC Gusau | 3.06 | 0.27 | 3.33 |
| FMC Birnin Kudu | 1.91 | 0.33 | 2.24 |
| FMC Katsina | 3.50 | 0.32 | 3.82 |
| FMC Birnin-Kebbi | 3.06 | 0.38 | 3.45 |
There you go. FMC Keffi in Nasarawa state is the most expensive FMC in the country, followed by FMC Owerri Imo state. Surprisingly FMC Yenagoa, which doesn’t strike me as exceptionally busy (Bayelsa is the least populated state in the country), has such a high wage bill of over 6 billion naira per annum and is actually the third most expensive FMC to run in the country. I suspect FMCs Asaba and Bida had ongoing capital intensive projects planned for 2019 as they were the only 2 FMCs with capital allocations over 1 billion Naira. All together, the FMCs will cost the country just under 100 billion Naira to run each year. Watch out for the next article on teaching hospitals.
Alpha Chiemezie Madu
January 29, 2022