Stakeholders seek evidence-driven strategy to improve healthcare access

The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) of Nigeria has called for a locally led health financing research agenda to improve healthcare access and financial protection for Nigerians. Director-General Dr Kelechi Ohiri made this call at the inaugural Nigeria Health Financing Research and Learning Forum, emphasizing the need for the country to take greater ownership of research that informs its health financing policies.

Ohiri noted that reliance on episodic studies has limited Nigeria's ability to build a sustained evidence base and stressed that research sovereignty does not mean cutting off from international partners but putting Nigeria in the driver's seat in defining its research priorities. The forum will review five NHIA-commissioned studies and examine health financing experiences from Ethiopia, Ghana, and India, focusing on key areas such as mandatory health insurance coverage, equity, quality of care, and sustainability.

Brief written by urgent.news from Punch's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.