Health
Nigeria Must Lead Health Financing Research Agenda — NHIA
The Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Kelechi Ohiri, says Nigeria must take charge of its health financing research agenda to sustain reforms, strengthen evidence-based policymaking and improve health outcomes nationwide.
Ohiri said this at the inaugural Nigeria Health Financing Research and Learning Forum in Abuja, themed: “Evidence and Learning for Nigeria’s Health Financing Future: Building a Locally Led Research and Learning Ecosystem.”
He said the forum was designed to leverage evidence to advance Nigeria’s health financing agenda while addressing limitations associated with episodic research and strengthening institutional capacity for continuous learning and reform.
“For too long, our health financing initiatives in Nigeria have been shaped by well-meant studies designed, commissioned, analysed, reported, synthesised, and presented to us at the finish line,” he said.
Ohiri said although such studies had provided valuable insights, episodic research could not establish the enduring policy foundation needed to sustain reforms and inform long-term decision-making effectively nationwide.
He said research sovereignty did not mean isolating Nigeria from global support but placing the country “in the driver’s seat” in defining questions, commissioning studies and embedding learning implementation.
“International partnerships remain vital, and the work must focus on building domestic capacity and also supporting domestic priorities,” Ohiri said, emphasising the importance of balancing collaboration with national ownership.
He said the NHIA would review five commissioned studies on embedded learning during the two-day forum and examine lessons from Ethiopia, Ghana and India to strengthen policy implementation.
Ohiri said evidence must serve reforms, noting that Nigeria’s health financing agenda focused on mandatory health insurance coverage, equity, quality healthcare delivery and long-term sustainability across the country.
He said Nigeria’s health insurance landscape remained fragmented, comprising 37 government insurance schemes and more than 95 private health insurance schemes operating across different segments of the population.
According to him, the fragmentation raises important questions about sustainability and highlights the need for robust research to generate evidence capable of guiding future reforms effectively nationwide.
Ohiri said the NHIA had identified 15 studies linked to its strategic priorities and was working to build research ecosystems involving national institutions, universities and other stakeholders.
He said the authority was also pursuing a national health financing observatory, 15 research action plans, a national research agenda and regional collaboration frameworks to strengthen evidence generation.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Nigeria, Dr Pavel Ursu, said health financing remained foundational to Universal Health Coverage and required implementation research to support reforms.
Ursu said global commitments on sustainable health financing and Universal Health Coverage must translate into concrete and transformative actions capable of improving healthcare access and outcomes at country level.
He said establishing the Nigeria Health Financing Research and Learning Forum provided an institutional opportunity to unpack research questions and increasingly drive national policy and implementation processes.
Ursu said WHO hoped the forum would mark the beginning of a sustained and nationally owned health financing research and learning movement capable of influencing future reforms.
Dr Kumanan Rasanathan, Executive Director of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, WHO, said research and learning should not be treated as luxuries in health systems.
“If you don’t have your own knowledge, if you don’t know your own problems, if that is not preserved for future generations, you cannot be sovereign,” Rasanathan said.
He said many institutions across Africa remained heavily dependent on external funding, warning that shrinking financial support could weaken organisations responsible for generating critical knowledge and evidence.
Rasanathan said countries needed domestically driven learning agendas capable of connecting knowledge, communities and decision-makers while strengthening national ownership of research and policy development processes.
He said researchers should move beyond identifying problems and focus on developing practical solutions that could be implemented effectively within the contexts under investigation and evaluation.
According to him, countries also require domestic institutions that are sustainably financed and linked to national processes while retaining the independence to provide objective advice.
Dr Yetunde Aluko, representing the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), said Nigeria needed more locally developed and relevant evidence to guide health financing reforms.
Aluko said Nigeria should establish an enduring national system where policymakers, researchers, implementers, communities and practitioners jointly identify priority questions and continuously learn from implementation experiences.
“Health financing research should therefore not be viewed simply as a production of reports or academic publications,” she said.
She said such research should function as part of a national learning system capable of showing what worked, for whom, under what circumstances and at what cost.
The system, she added, should also generate evidence on implications for equity, sustainability and effectiveness, helping policymakers make informed decisions that improve healthcare financing outcomes nationwide.
Fatima Zannah, Cluster Manager and Head of Programme, German Development Cooperation (GIZ), said locally generated evidence was critical for designing health financing approaches reflecting Nigerians’ realities and needs.
Zannah said health financing decisions could not be made in isolation from factors influencing healthcare-seeking behaviour, including culture, religion, geography, income, education, gender and social networks.
“This is why locally generated evidence matters. It allows us to move beyond assumptions, and better understand the diversity of experiences across Nigeria,” she said.
She said Nigeria could also learn from countries facing similar challenges, adapt relevant lessons and build on their experiences to strengthen health financing reforms and implementation.
Zannah urged participants to view evidence as a tool for decision-making, policy development, transparency, equity and accountability within the health sector and broader governance systems.
She said development partners looked forward to supporting the initiative and seeing evidence generated through the process translated into better decisions and improved health outcomes nationwide.
The forum, which began on Monday, is expected to conclude on Tuesday after deliberations focused on strengthening health financing research, learning systems and evidence-informed reforms across Nigeria.(NAN)
Edited by Abiemwense Moru
