Public health experts have emphasized the need for Nigeria to shift from fragmented data and perception-driven decisions to evidence-based health financing. This approach is critical to determining how much is spent on health, where the money goes, and what outcomes it produces. The experts made this call at the launch of the Nigeria Health Financing Observatory in Abuja.
The Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Kelechi Ohiri, stated that Nigeria can no longer use poor data as an excuse for weak decision-making. He noted that the country has increased health financing but still spends below comparable countries in per-capita health expenditure and as a proportion of GDP. Ohiri stressed that the issue is not just about spending more, but also about spending resources effectively.
The NHIA DG cited the Saving One Million Lives Initiative, implemented about 15 years ago, as an example of the consequences of inadequate data for measuring results and designing interventions. He recalled that the program faced difficulties due to existing systems' inability to provide timely and reliable information. Ohiri noted that despite improvements in data availability and technology, fragmentation remains a major challenge.
The Nigeria Health Financing Observatory aims to address these challenges by bringing together information from multiple sources and translating it into evidence for policymaking. The observatory will provide subnational data suited to Nigeria's decentralized governance structure. Ohiri emphasized that the platform should serve as a public good for researchers, policymakers, and civil society.
The observatory's success will ultimately be measured by whether the information improves policy decisions and healthcare delivery. Dr. Kumanan Rasamathan, Executive Director of the WHO Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, stressed that countries cannot exercise meaningful health sovereignty without knowing where health resources come from, where they go, and what they achieve.
Rasamathan noted that the observatory's value depends on the quality of its underlying data, warning against prioritizing attractive dashboards over reliable information. Dr. Yewande Ogundeji of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research emphasized that the observatory will strengthen Nigerian ownership of health financing information and enable policymakers to use locally generated evidence.
The observatory will track domestic and external financing, budgets, and releases at national and subnational levels. It will bring health financing and health outcome data together to show how financing decisions affect outcomes. The platform will also document what works and what does not, allowing civil society organizations to hold the government accountable based on verifiable evidence.
Key points
- Nigeria must adopt evidence-driven health financing to ensure resources are properly allocated and translated into better healthcare and financial protection.
- The Nigeria Health Financing Observatory aims to provide a platform for evidence-based policymaking and improve healthcare delivery.
- The observatory's success will be measured by its impact on policy decisions and healthcare outcomes.
