Health Leaders Push for Inclusive, Digital-First Systems at Lagos Policy Summit
By Babatunde Saheed
At the 2024 Lagos Health Policy Roundtable held yesterday at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, leading health experts and government officials called for urgent reform of Nigeria’s public health systems, focusing on digital innovation, primary healthcare, and underserved urban populations.
The high-level policy forum, organized by the Centre for Health Dialogue in collaboration with the Lagos State Ministry of Health, attracted over 400 participants including international development partners, public health scholars, and senior policymakers.
A standout voice at the forum was Mr. Oyedotun Anthony Oyedeji, FRSPH, a globally recognized public health strategist and Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health (UK).
Speaking on a panel titled “Reimagining Community Health in a Post-COVID Era”, Oyedeji emphasized the importance of equity, data decentralization, and digital integration in achieving lasting health reforms.
“We’ve seen that top-down models cannot meet the needs of vulnerable communities. Our future depends on empowering local health actors with real-time data, community trust, and technology that scales,” Oyedeji stated, drawing from his leadership in TB, HIV, and pandemic preparedness projects across Nigeria.
Joining him on the panel were Dr. Bola Adeyemi, Director of Public Health at the Lagos State Ministry of Health; Prof. Helen Obadan of the University of Ibadan; and Ms. Fatima Musa, Head of Health Equity at UNICEF Nigeria. Discussions spanned topics such as AI-powered health mapping, resilient health supply chains, and gender-sensitive interventions.
Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, delivered the keynote, reaffirming the government’s commitment to achieving Universal Health Coverage by 2030 and praising the panel for “pioneering ideas rooted in both science and social justice.”
The event concluded with a policy communiqué calling for:
● Scalable digital health solutions linked to community data systems
● Expanded funding for grassroots health infrastructure
● Recognition and replication of local innovation models, such as Oyedeji’s HIV mapping framework adopted in multiple LGAs
● Inter-ministerial collaboration on health, environment, and social development
About the Forum:
The Lagos Health Policy Roundtable has emerged as one of Nigeria’s most influential annual gatherings of public health experts, convened to shape evidence-based strategies for improving health outcomes in urban centers.
