There Is No Fixed Price for a Kidney, Surgeon Says

There is no standard price for a human kidney, Nigerian surgeon Torngee Malu said amid an investigation into alleged kidney harvesting and human trafficking in the country.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Morning Brief, Malu said lawful organ donation could involve reimbursement or compensation, but the law did not establish a fixed amount. He questioned how anyone could determine what compensation would be sufficient, even when a relative donates a kidney to a family member.

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I will still have to follow the law. If you go to the US or the UK, they say there should be reimbursement, what people may call compensation.

“People also think that kidney failure only affects rich people. It doesn’t, it affects a lot of poor people,” Malu said. He argued that the central question should be who needs a transplant and who is willing to donate through proper procedures, rather than assigning a set monetary value to the organ.

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So, it’s not about a fixed rate to give for kidneys. There’s no fixed rate.

Malu also stressed the technical demands of transplantation. Kidney removal requires a specialist and standard medical conditions, he said, adding that even a general surgeon cannot simply perform the procedure. He described the kidney as one of the body’s most concealed organs and said specialist expertise is necessary to remove it safely.

The surgeon said the donor and recipient enter surgery only after the required tests and matching have been completed. He also said the Federal Ministry of Health expanded the legal framework for organ donation through guidelines issued in 2025. His comments distinguished regulated transplantation from trafficking, which remains part of the investigation surrounding alleged illegal organ operations.

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It’s very, very difficult to harvest the kidney. I’m a surgeon, I’ve been practicing for years, I’m a plastic surgeon, I cannot harvest a kidney.