A cross-section of Nigerians in Europe have decried the high fees being charged for circumcision of baby boys in clinics.
The Europe Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday reported that the procedure is not common in many hospitals; therefore, parents patronise clinics, with cost ranging between €467.85 (N200,000) and €1,169.62 (N500,000).
This varies from country to country, however.
Speaking on the issue, Uche Erebuna, a member of the Nigerian In Diaspora Organisation, Switzerland, said that the cost of circumcision depended on the weight of the child.
“Baby circumcision is not a common practice here; so, immigrants who have this culture have to look for clinics where doctors can perform it.
“I have twin boys and they were circumcised at the age of one. I paid €1,637.15 (about N700,000) for both of them.
“This is considered cheap, as it could have been about a million Naira,” Erebuna said.
Similarly, Gloria Edema, a housewife with two male children aged four and two said that her kids were circumcised at two months old respectively.
“On both occasions, I paid 500 Swiss franc (N170,000) per child to a clinic in Zurich.
“I can not start traveling to Nigeria for this purpose, it will cost me more.”
Some others who spoke to NAN from Italy, France and Germany also expressed the same concern.
They opined that the high cost was due to the specialty of the process, which is a regular practice among immigrants.
NAN gathered that in the UK, the cost for such procedure is a lot cheaper, given the big immigrant and Jewish communities – with affordable and easy access to medical practitioners.
(NAN)
