FG, stakeholders seek wider adoption of health innovations in Nigeria

Government officials and health innovation experts have called for increased investment in primary healthcare, sustainable financing and locally developed medical technologies to help Nigeria expand effective health interventions beyond pilot projects.

They made the call on Wednesday at the Gatefield Health Summit in Abuja, where discussions centred on how governments and development partners could translate successful health initiatives into sustainable programmes that reach more people.

The summit, held from 21 to 22 October, ran under the theme “Scaling What Works”.

Discussions highlighted two key requirements for strengthening Nigeria’s health system: ensuring proven interventions receive the funding and policy support needed for wider implementation, and creating an enabling environment for homegrown medical technologies to reach those who need them.

Government prioritises primary healthcare

In a goodwill message, Salma Anas, special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on health, said the federal government was prioritising primary healthcare, digital health systems, disease prevention and strategic partnerships.

Mrs Anas said the administration was treating health not merely as a social service but as a pillar of human capital development and economic growth under the Renewed Hope Agenda.

She described primary healthcare as the foundation of Nigeria’s ambition to achieve universal health coverage, stressing the importance of strengthening services that provide the first point of contact between communities and the health system.

She also called for a shift from small-scale digital health projects to integrated systems that can support nationwide healthcare delivery.

On disease prevention, she said greater investment in preventive care and nutrition was necessary to reduce the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases.

She added that stronger public-private partnerships were needed to mobilise funding, facilitate technology transfer, and support local manufacturing.

“Scaling what works requires bold policy alignment, efficient strategy execution, cross-sector collaboration, and sustainable financing,” she said.

Mrs Anas warned against leaving effective interventions confined to pilot studies and prototype frameworks, saying their outcomes should translate into tangible improvements in healthcare delivery.

Funding remains a major obstacle

However, expanding successful interventions will require more consistent funding, according to Ahmed Aliko, a policy and strategy official in the Office of the Special Adviser to the President on Health.

Mr Aliko said several health programmes implemented through partnerships between government and development organisations had demonstrated promising results but remained limited in their reach.

He said additional funding was needed to expand such initiatives to more communities and ensure that their benefits were sustained.

He cited the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), established under the National Health Act, as one mechanism through which the federal government supports essential healthcare services, including services at primary healthcare facilities.

Mr Aliko also called for broader health insurance coverage to reduce the financial barriers that prevent Nigerians from accessing care.

‘AI offers opportunities for local innovation’

Siddhartha Prakash, the global health lead at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), said artificial intelligence (AI) was creating opportunities to improve disease screening, diagnosis and clinical decision-making.

He said about 20 per cent of Nigerian doctors use conversational AI tools, including ChatGPT and Claude, to support their decision-making.

However, he cautioned that many AI systems rely on models trained predominantly on foreign data, which may not adequately reflect the characteristics and healthcare needs of Nigerian and other African populations.

Mr Prakash said locally developed technologies could help address some of these gaps but would require stronger research capacity, investment and intellectual property protection to move from invention to widespread use.

He cited a smart bra developed by Nigerian inventor Kemi Bolarinwa for breast cancer detection as an example of homegrown medical innovation.

According to him, intellectual property protection played an important role in the invention’s commercialisation journey, helping the inventor pursue patent protection with federal government support.

He explained that patents could help innovators establish the originality of their inventions and give prospective investors greater confidence in funding their development and commercialisation.

“A strong IP portfolio can significantly enhance a medical venture’s financial prospects,” he said.

Mr Prakash added that universities could support medical innovation by funding research and helping researchers commercialise their findings.

WIPO backs medical manufacturing

Mr Prakash said Africa’s efforts to reduce dependence on imported medical technologies would require greater investment in local research and development, clinical trials, manufacturing and distribution.

He said AI-assisted medical technologies and other healthcare innovations need the right infrastructure and sustainable business models to move from development to large-scale production.

To support these efforts, he said WIPO launched its Intellectual Property for Medical Innovation and Manufacturing Centre of Excellence in 2025.

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The initiative provides training and capacity-building support to governments, companies, researchers and innovators on using intellectual property systems to protect and commercialise medical technologies.

Its areas of focus include patents, trade secrets, licensing, technology transfer and freedom-to-operate assessments, which help innovators determine whether they can develop and commercialise products without infringing existing intellectual property rights.

Mr Prakash said WIPO was also working with international partners to address the intellectual property questions emerging from the growing use of AI in healthcare.

He cited the organisation’s collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Telecommunication Union under the AI for Global Health Initiative, which addresses issues including data, regulation, ethics, evaluation and intellectual property.

He said the collaboration was intended to help policymakers, researchers and industry stakeholders navigate emerging technologies while supporting the development of sustainable health systems.