Nigeria has inaugurated the Nigeria Health Financing Observatory to harmonise health financing data and strengthen research, accountability and evidence-based decision-making in the health sector.
The Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Kelechi Ohiri, launched the observatory on Tuesday, September 29, in Abuja at the inaugural Nigeria Health Financing Research and Learning Forum. He said the platform was designed to address fragmented health financing information and turn data into evidence and actionable insights.
Ohiri said Nigeria still spent below comparable countries on healthcare and stressed that tracking how funds were allocated and used was as important as knowing how much was spent. He said the observatory would provide more detailed information, including at sub-national levels, while serving as a public repository for researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders.
Dr Yewande Ogundeji of the Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation said the platform would track domestic and external financing, budgets and releases at national and sub-national levels. She said almost 200 indicators had been identified, with validated indicators to be available in the first phase, while later phases would introduce additional indicators and explore artificial intelligence-assisted search and predictive analysis.
Dr Kumanan Rasanathan of the World Health Organisation’s Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research said the observatory could strengthen Nigeria’s health sovereignty by showing where health resources were going and what they were achieving.
Nigeria Health Watch Managing Director, Vivienne Ihekweazu, also said the initiative would help identify research and learning gaps around equity, access and health coverage. The observatory is expected to provide a common evidence base for policymakers, researchers, civil society and other stakeholders.
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