The Federal Ministry of Health has said data collection systems across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) remains suboptimal and, in many cases, paper-based.
Minister of state for health and social welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, stated this during the Nigerian Digital in Health Initiative (NDHI) national stakeholders meeting in Abuja, on Tuesday.
It was themed ‘ Enabling the digital and data landscape of Nigeria’s health reforms’.
Dr Salako said this undermines the country ‘s ability to monitor health trends, respond to disease outbreaks, allocate resources efficiently, or even plan for the future.
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He said, “Decisions have often been made with limited or outdated information. This has real consequences especially for mothers seeking antenatal care, for children needing vaccinations, for communities fighting outbreaks, and for policymakers attempting to prioritize limited resources.”
He said healthcare workers often operate in silos, without the digital tools or the infrastructure needed to do their jobs more effectively, adding that ” The private sector, which delivers an estimated 60% of healthcare services in Nigeria, is often left outside national reporting and governance structures.”
The Minister said in March 2024, the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare
launched the NDHI as a concrete and implementable roadmap to build a unified, secure, and interoperable digital health ecosystem for Nigeria.
While saying that Nigeria has the talent and the momentum to become a model for digital health innovation in Africa – and globally, he said the NDHI is not a federal initiative but “a national initiative that belongs to all of us – the states, the health workers, the innovators, and most of all, the people of Nigeria.”
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