Over 500 healthcare providers have been digitised - Lagos Gov't
The Lagos State Ministry of Health has revealed that over 500 private healthcare providers have been digitized across the state.
The was announced at a high-level stakeholders’ meeting held in Ikeja in collaboration with Maisha Meds, themed “Scaling Digital Health Innovations in Lagos Leveraging Proven Private Sector Frameworks for National Health Security,” with a focus on a dual disease elimination strategy.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Abimbola Salu-Hundeyin, said the initiative reflects the administration’s commitment to strengthening health security and safeguarding residents.
He noted that malaria remains a major cause of illness and death, particularly among women and children, adding that technology-driven partnerships have improved disease surveillance and patient management across the state.
According to the governor, the digitisation of private providers and the launch of an expanded tuberculosis diagnostic access programme would help identify undetected cases and improve treatment linkages, while building sustainable health systems beyond political cycles.
He urged residents to embrace early testing and support healthcare workers.
In his remarks, Commissioner for Health, Akin Abayomi, described the programme as a major milestone in Lagos’ health sector reform, noting that malaria prevalence has declined significantly over the years, even though health facilities previously reported high case numbers.
He explained that expanded surveillance into the private sector where most residents seek treatment helped resolve discrepancies between community data and clinical diagnosis.
Abayomi disclosed that through partnership with Maisha Meds, Lagos transformed 514 community pharmacies and patent medicine vendors into digitised service points, enabling more than 80,000 diagnostic tests and confirming Lagos as a low malaria transmission setting.
He added that about 95 per cent of fever cases in the state are not malaria, underscoring the importance of mandatory testing before treatment.
On tuberculosis, the commissioner revealed that Lagos accounts for about nine per cent of Nigeria’s TB burden, with a significant number of cases still undetected annually.
To address the gap, the state has introduced a portable molecular diagnostic platform within the digitally enabled provider network to expand access to testing and early detection.
He also highlighted broader reforms, including infrastructure upgrades, expansion of health insurance coverage under the Lagos State Health Management Agency, and plans to digitise the entire public health information ecosystem to support data-driven decision-making and resource allocation.
Representatives of the First Lady, Claudiana Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, as well as federal lawmakers and national health programme officials, commended Lagos for its leadership in infectious disease control and called for stronger collaboration and sustainable funding to achieve elimination targets.
The event featured the unveiling of the tuberculosis diagnostic scale-up initiative tagged “End TB Now” by Governor Sanwo-Olu, marking what stakeholders described as a new phase in Lagos’ integrated disease elimination drive aimed at building a healthier and more resilient megacity.