The Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Kelechi Ohiri, has urged Nigeria to develop homegrown healthcare innovations tailored to its specific challenges and priorities to improve healthcare delivery.
Ohiri made the call on Thursday at the Future of Health Conference organised by Nigeria Health Watch in Abuja, themed “From Innovation to Impact: The Future of Health is Now”.
He said Nigeria must strengthen local research, use evidence-based policies and build an innovation ecosystem capable of delivering measurable improvements in health outcomes.
According to him, innovation should go beyond technology to include healthcare financing, service delivery, governance and the capacity of frontline health workers.
He noted that Nigeria’s combined burden of infectious and non-communicable diseases, high mortality rates and limited healthcare financing required solutions suited to its unique circumstances.
Ohiri said the success of healthcare innovation should be measured by its ability to improve health outcomes and protect Nigerians from financial hardship, rather than the number of pilot projects or discussions.
He cited the NHIA’s emergency obstetric care intervention, which he said had benefited about 90,000 women in the preceding 18 months by addressing financial barriers to timely treatment of childbirth complications.
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He also disclosed that about 70,000 people had been integrated into health insurance through initiatives involving state governments, including programmes supporting people living with HIV and tuberculosis.
The NHIA chief said the authority had established a research platform in partnership with Nigeria Health Policy to support local researchers in developing evidence and solutions tailored to the country’s healthcare needs.
He stressed the need for clear processes to assess health technologies and identify innovations capable of delivering the greatest benefits.
Earlier, the Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu, said the conference aimed to move discussions beyond future possibilities to examine existing healthcare solutions and how they could be expanded.
She said innovations must deliver practical improvements to people who need healthcare now, particularly pregnant women and other vulnerable groups.
Ihekweazu added that the conference would showcase interventions in maternal health, family planning, digital health, agriculture and climate-resilient healthcare facilities.
She said the event also provided a platform for stakeholders to address policy, funding and implementation challenges that could determine whether promising innovations reached the people who needed them.
