By Anan Geolengs
One month after President Bola Tinubu approved the National Health Technology and Data Analytics Office, NHTDAO, the new agency is taking off amid warnings from health experts and civil society that it risks becoming another underfunded structure unless government addresses funding gaps and duplication concerns.
President Tinubu approved the establishment of NHTDAO on June 26, 2026, and appointed Dr Obi Adigwe, then Director General of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRD, as pioneer National Coordinator. In a statement by Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, the Presidency said the office will be domiciled in the Office of the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare.
The Presidency described NHTDAO as a meta-level national platform to coordinate Nigeria’s digital-health agenda. It is expected to reinforce rather than replace the statutory functions of existing departments and agencies, while harmonising both public and private institutions across the health system. The office will also set interoperability standards, connect disparate health data systems, and operationalise the National Digital Health Architecture that was approved by the National Council on Health in November 2025.
According to the Presidency, the office will serve as the nerve center for Nigeria’s health data ecosystem. Its core mandate includes developing national standards for electronic health records, ensuring secure data exchange between hospitals, clinics, laboratories and insurance providers, and providing analytics to guide policy and disease surveillance. By centralising coordination, government hopes to end the current situation where health facilities operate siloed systems that cannot talk to each other.
Officials say this will reduce duplication, improve disease tracking, and enable faster response to outbreaks. President Tinubu expects NHTDAO to accelerate Nigeria’s shift to a secure, interoperable and data-driven health system that improves outcomes for all citizens, in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda.
The choice of Dr Adigwe signals government’s intent to anchor the new office in research and technology. Until his appointment, Adigwe was Director General of NIPRD. At NIPRD, he leveraged science to catalyse interventions in artificial intelligence, translational research, and technology transfer. He coordinated major projects, including the ¥300 million Nanotechnology grant and the AFREXIMBank grant for Africa’s first Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient, API, Training Facility. He also led the roadmap development that underpinned an €18 million European Union grant, the largest in Africa for the thematic area at the time. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Adigwe brought global attention to African science when he led the world’s first peer-reviewed analysis to debunk claims about the COVID Organics preparation. Health sector stakeholders say his background in research, grants management and international partnerships will be critical in positioning NHTDAO to attract donor support and technical collaboration.
Despite the optimism around NHTDAO, the announcement has been met with caution by experts who point to the Federal Government’s poor record of releasing capital funds to the health sector. In February, the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammed Pate, appeared before the House Committee on Healthcare Services for the 2025 budget defence and disclosed a stark funding gap. “Out of the N218bn appropriated to the health sector by the parliament for the execution of capital projects in the 2025 fiscal year, only N36m was released,” Pate told lawmakers. He attributed the poor capital budget performance to cash flow constraints and systemic bottlenecks in the Federal Government’s budget execution process.
According to him, the bottom-up cash planning system operated by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation has made it difficult to access appropriated funds in a timely manner.
The minister also noted that delays in releasing Nigeria’s counterpart contributions to donor-supported health programmes prevented the Ministry from accessing additional funds. Many donor grants require government to provide matching funds before they can be disbursed. While the Ministry’s personnel budget for 2025 was fully released and utilised, the capital component suffered severe shortfalls. This, Pate said, stalled the execution of projects and interventions despite readiness by the Ministry to roll them out.
Budget documents and legislative oversight reports show that the 2025 experience is not new. In recent years, the Federal Ministry of Health has consistently struggled with the implementation of capital projects due to late or minimal releases. This pattern has affected critical investments in healthcare infrastructure, equipment procurement, disease control programmes, and primary healthcare revitalisation. Although large capital allocations are often approved annually for the health sector, actual cash backing remains low, particularly during periods of fiscal pressure, rising debt service obligations, and revenue shortfalls. The result has been the roll-over of projects year after year, under-utilisation of donor funds that require counterpart financing, and delayed completion of hospitals, laboratories, and public health facilities nationwide.
For civil society, the creation of NHTDAO is welcome but only if it is properly funded. Philip Jakpor, Executive Director of Renevlyn Development Initiative, RDI, said the idea of a central office to help medical teams share information seamlessly and safely is “in good order.” “Since it also sets rules to link public and private health records effectively, patients will enjoy faster diagnosis and treatment,” Jakpor said. “What the government must however do is ensure adequate funding and guarantee that it is not only in name but functional. We have seen too many agencies created with big mandates but no budget to deliver.”
Others are more skeptical about the need for a new agency entirely. Sendi Dauda, Technical Team Lead at MIPRINS Consulting Ltd, questioned the timing and rationale. “I don’t think the agency is necessary for now, considering the fiscal discipline the government is introducing and the burden on the federal wage bill,” Dauda said. “I am also concerned about duplication of effort, given the number of agencies within the Ministry of Health. Digital transformation does not need a separate coordinating agency. A small unit or a department within the MoH can lead the transformation agenda.” Dauda argued that digitisation should be embedded in existing structures. He cited the Monitoring, Evaluation and Knowledge Management Department in the ministry as a possible coordinating hub. “When the Ministry of Information wanted to digitise TV stations, it did not create a new agency for that. Digitisation has to be embedded in the system, not run as a standalone initiative,” he said.
He further pointed to existing institutions: “We already have the Ministry of Digital Economy, Digital Bridge Institute, and the Bureau of Statistics, which have staff in almost all MDAs. What would this new agency do differently? How effective will this initiative be in terms of health service delivery? What Nigeria needs now is not the creation of more agencies that will only bring confusion to the system, but the strengthening of existing institutions for efficient and effective service delivery, with a focus on accountability and transparency that is inclusive. Institutions should be established to address issues, not just to create jobs.”
Nwokorie Chibuike, Lead Strategist at C&A Consult, echoed the funding concerns. “Considering the non-release of funds to Government Agencies, which is at its highest in the present government, measures should be put in place for the proper funding of this office, else what had befallen the existing MDAs will be the lot of this newly created office,” Chibuike said. “Creating MDAs or offices is one thing, while effectively funding them and engaging skilled manpower to run them is so vital. Without that, NHTDAO risks becoming another structure on paper.”
Despite the challenges, the Ministry insists it is working within established policy frameworks. Pate said Nigeria’s health sector operates under Vision 20:2020, the Medium-Term National Development Plan 2021–2025, and the National Strategic Health Development Plan II. He said the overarching goal of the Nigerian Constitution and the National Health Act is to guarantee the right to health for all Nigerians. The 2016 National Health Policy, he added, provides the implementation framework for translating the provisions of the National Health Act and the Sustainable Development Goals into improved health outcomes. “The principles of Universal Health Coverage are central to the National Health Policy objective of strengthening Nigeria’s health system, particularly the Primary Health Care subsystem, to deliver quality, effective, efficient, equitable, accessible, affordable, acceptable and comprehensive health services to all Nigerians,” Pate said.
The minister disclosed that policies and strategies underpinning the 2026 budget are drawn from the 2026–2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper. He explained that the Ministry’s 2026 budget proposal was prepared using the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, in line with the National Development Plan 2021–2025, which emphasises justification and allocation of resources to projects and programmes based on actual needs. He added that the proposal aligns with the policy thrust and execution priorities of the Federal Government, as well as the ministerial deliverables of the Tinubu administration. In his words, the 2026 budget proposal is anchored on the 2016 National Health Policy and guided by the Federal Ministry of Health’s Strategic Blueprint Initiatives, which serve as key policy instruments for achieving ministerial deliverables and advancing Universal Health Coverage. The National Health Policy 2016, themed “Promoting the Health of Nigerians to Accelerate Socio-economic Development,” provides the foundation for the National Strategic Health Development Plan II and supports accelerated implementation of the National Health Act, 2014.
For NHTDAO, the road ahead is clear but steep. The mandate is ambitious: connect a fragmented health system, set national data standards, and provide analytics that can save lives. The leadership has the technical credentials. What remains uncertain is whether government will back the office with the money and political will needed to make it work. As Jakpor puts it, the difference between success and failure will be “funding and functionality.” Without both, NHTDAO risks joining the long list of well-intentioned health initiatives that never moved beyond the launch announcement.
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