…forum to strengthen locally -led research, build national expertise, put Nigerian evidence at the heart of health financing decisions
The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF), Nigeria Health Watch, and the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, will convene the inaugural Nigeria Health Financing Research & Learning Forum on September 28 and 29, 2026.
The forum, themed “Evidence and Learning for Nigeria’s Health Financing Future: Building a Locally Led Research and Learning Ecosystem,” will bring together policymakers, researchers, healthcare practitioners and partners to strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to generate, own and use evidence that reflects the country’s health needs, priorities and realities.
At the heart of the forum is an important national objective: research sovereignty — strengthening Nigeria’s ability to ask its own critical health financing questions, generate credible local evidence and ensure that important policy and healthcare decisions are increasingly informed by knowledge produced within the country.
The two-day forum comes at a significant point in Nigeria’s health financing reforms, as the country expands health insurance coverage, strengthens financial protection and seeks to get greater health value from available resources.
For NHIA, locally generated research and evidence are already becoming an important part of health financing decision-making. In 2025, the Authority established a Strategic Purchasing Department with a dedicated Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Division.
NHIA has since developed key HTA tools and processes, invested in specialised human capital and generated local evidence through the Nigerian EQ-5D-5L valuation study. It has also conducted pilot assessments covering kidney replacement therapy, colorectal cancer screening and sorafenib for advanced liver cancer.
These initiatives are helping to strengthen domestic expertise and provide Nigerian evidence for decisions on medicines, treatments, technologies and services.
The practical importance is clear. Health financing decisions determine which services and technologies are covered, how healthcare is purchased and how resources are allocated. Stronger Nigerian evidence can help policymakers determine what works best within the country’s circumstances, identify gaps and ensure that available resources deliver greater access to effective and quality healthcare.
For Nigerians, the benefits ultimately have to be felt at the point of care. Better evidence can support more responsive benefit packages, more effective treatments, improved purchasing decisions and better healthcare outcomes.
The forum will therefore focus not simply on producing more research, but on strengthening the connection between research, policy, implementation and results.
NHIA Director-General and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Kelechi Ohiri, is among the key speakers at the forum, alongside leading health financing experts including Professor Chima Onoka, Professor Tanimola Akande, Dr. Olalekan Makinde and Dr. Kurfi Abubakar Muhammad, among others.
Their participation reflects the breadth of the conversation the forum seeks to promote — bringing together policymakers, researchers and practitioners to examine how evidence is generated, interpreted and translated into decisions that improve healthcare.
A major focus will be the development of a sustainable, locally led research and learning ecosystem that strengthens Nigerian institutions and researchers, encourages collaboration and ensures that research priorities are increasingly shaped by the country’s own health challenges and policy needs.
This approach recognises that while international knowledge and partnerships remain valuable, sustainable health reform also requires strong domestic institutions capable of producing high-quality evidence and applying it confidently to national priorities.
The inaugural forum will provide an opportunity to identify what is working, examine remaining evidence gaps and build stronger links among researchers, policymakers and practitioners.
Ultimately, the ambition is to help establish a stronger culture of evidence-led health financing in which Nigeria increasingly generates the knowledge it needs, develops the expertise to interpret it and uses that knowledge to make better healthcare decisions for Nigerians.
