The Federal Government has stepped up efforts to modernise Nigeria’s healthcare system through an ambitious nationwide digitisation programme aimed at improving efficiency, transparency, and service delivery across health facilities.
Speaking at the FASTR Programme Review Meeting and the launch of the Automated National Health Sector Scorecard in Abuja, officials of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare announced that performance monitoring across health facilities is now being automated. The initiative is expected to strengthen accountability and enable health authorities to make faster, data-driven decisions.
According to the ministry, the new automated scorecard system replaces the largely manual process previously used to track key health indicators. The digital platform can generate performance reports from national, state, local government, and facility levels within minutes, allowing healthcare managers to quickly identify gaps and implement corrective measures.
The Head of Monitoring and Evaluation at the ministry, Dr. Anthony Adoghe, said the innovation marks a significant milestone in Nigeria’s healthcare reform agenda. He noted that all facilities operating under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund are expected to be fully digitised by the end of the month, while several states have already begun extending the process to public secondary healthcare facilities.
As part of efforts to promote transparency and encourage wider adoption, the Federal Government plans to publish a nationwide register of digitised health facilities. The move is expected to help track progress, improve public confidence, and encourage states yet to embrace digital health systems to join the initiative.
Health experts say the digitisation drive could transform healthcare delivery by improving patient record management, reducing paperwork, enhancing disease surveillance, and ensuring that critical health information is readily available for planning and emergency response.
Development partners have also welcomed the initiative. Representatives of the Global Financing Facility described Nigeria as one of its leading partner countries in the use of health data for planning and policy formulation, reaffirming support for efforts aimed at strengthening evidence-based decision-making in the health sector.
The digitisation programme forms part of broader reforms designed to build a more responsive, efficient, and data-driven healthcare system capable of meeting the needs of Nigeria’s growing population.
