Nigeria collected only 24,000 to 25,000 units of blood through its National Blood Service Agency centres in 2025, highlighting the country’s struggle to meet the demand for transfusions.
The National Blood Service Agency (NBSA) said the country needed between 1.8 million and two million units annually to meet medical needs, leaving a significant gap between available supplies and demand.
The Director-General of the agency, Prof. Saleh Yuguda, disclosed the figures through the Head of Operations Centre, Dr Aliyu Dahiru Waziri, at a media roundtable on voluntary blood donation organised in collaboration with the International Society of Media in Public Health on Saturday.
Yuguda said Nigeria needed at least two per cent of its population to participate in blood donation to improve national reserves and reduce the pressure on patients’ relatives, who are often forced to find donors during medical emergencies.
“As of last year, if we only take the census in the National Blood Service, we will only be talking about 24,000 or 25,000 units of blood generally. But with a population of more than 200 million people, we should be talking about at least two per cent of our population giving blood,” he said.
Figures from the World Health Organisation show that Nigeria collected 371,827 units in 2024, while voluntary donations rose from 12,568 in 2024 to 16,344 in 2025.
The WHO recommends that countries collect at least 10 units of blood per 1,000 people annually to meet basic clinical needs. It also identifies voluntary, unpaid donors as the safest and most reliable source of blood.
The shortage poses risks to patients requiring emergency surgery, women experiencing childbirth complications, accident victims, children with severe anaemia and people living with sickle cell disease and cancer.
The WHO estimates that postpartum haemorrhage accounts for between 23 and 30 per cent of maternal deaths in Nigeria, making access to safe blood critical to managing childbirth complications.
Waziri said the agency was working to improve blood collection, storage and distribution through a digital platform known as the National Blood Management System.
He explained that the system would track donated blood from collection to transfusion, making it easier to identify the source of complications if they occurred.
The agency is also strengthening the registration and regulation of public and private blood banks, while expanding its hospital linkage programme to improve distribution.
Waziri warned against individuals collecting blood from agency centres in ordinary coolers without proper temperature control, saying the practice could compromise its safety.
He said registered hospitals would instead communicate their requirements to the agency to enable it to plan supplies and organise distribution.
The NBSA official also called for government intervention to make blood available free of charge, arguing that removing financial barriers would improve access for patients.
He disclosed that the agency and its international partners had trained personnel from 30 institutions in safe blood donation and clinical transfusion practices.
Earlier, health communication advocate Moji Makanjuola urged media organisations to intensify public education to address misinformation and cultural beliefs discouraging voluntary blood donation.
She said journalists should encourage Nigerians to become regular donors rather than wait until relatives or friends require blood during emergencies.
The President of the Association of Nigerian Health Journalists, Joseph Kadiri, also described voluntary blood donation as a humanitarian responsibility that should transcend religious, ethnic and political differences.
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