By Ojoma Akor
Medical experts have said that digitalization of the health sector is crucial to attaining Universal Health Coverage ( UHC) in the country.
They made the call in Abuja during the Nigeria Digital in Health Initiative (NDHI) national stakeholders meeting. It was themed ‘ Enabling the digital and data landscape of Nigeria’s health reforms’.
Dr Leke Ojewale, Senior Technical Adviser to the Minister of Health on digital health, and a digital in health lead within the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) Coordinating Office, said
digital health is the cornerstone period to achieving universal health coverage ( UHC) .
He stressed the need for collaboration across government, private sector, partners and for all hands to be on deck towards digitalization of the health sector.
He said , ” The time for digital health is now. We must in fact, as a nation, prioritize digital in health, we must leapfrog and quickly catch up. And finally take our position as the lead in Africa.”
Dr Gbenga Ijadola, National Program Manager for NDHI, Federal Ministry of Health said there was need for an innovative and sustainable plan on digitalizing the health sector.
He said there was also need to improve on public private partnership, adding “that was the only way we will be able to digitalize the entire health sector, and improve on universal health coverage.”
Dr Obidike Afam Ben, Commissioner of Health, Anambra state who spoke in behalf of Nigeria health commissioners forum said there were still gaps in data and digitalization in the country’s health sector, such as poor data quality, not reporting data in real time, lack of electronic medical records, among others.
He said policy, legislation, requisite infrastructure and human resources will help in digitalization of the health sector.
Earlier, Minister of state for health and social welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako said that data collection systems across 36 states plus Federal Capital Territory (FCT) remain suboptimal and, in many cases,
paper-based.
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.
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.”
