Meet Samuel Anari, Lagos Hospital Engineer Now Building AI Solutions for UK’s NHS Crisis

Oluchi Chibuzor

Samuel Anari’s journey from Nigerian healthcare systems to Scottish academic distinction demonstrates the global reach of homegrown technical talent. I almost didn’t want to engage him but having known him for two decades now and witnessing his career progression from a greenhorn tech enthusiast to a global tech expert- I changed my mind.

To me, Samuel Oluwaseun Anari has always shown his flair for creating something out of nothing and most times his penchant for trouble-shooting usually prevails. Then someone mentioned he had graduated with some kind of perfect score that got my attention.

Turns out ‘some kind of perfect score’ means 180 credits out of 180—perfect completion of his MSc in Advanced Computer Science at a Scottish university, with overall Distinction. The kind of academic record professors remember but that’s not the interesting part.

From Lagos IT Support to Systems Architect

Before Scotland, Anari was building production healthcare systems in Lagos—actual enterprise platforms processing over N220 million in transactions while serving 1,500+ daily users at one of Africa’s largest private hospitals.

Having honed his skill locally as an IT Support Engineer in 2021 in Lagos, Nigeria, he explained that his quest to understand the healthcare industry motivates him to develop a solution that can be scaled by investors.

According to him, “I wanted to understand how hospitals actually work before building systems for them.”

The opportunity came quickly, during his internship, when the hospital’s meal payment system relied on paper vouchers, creating hours of manual reconciliation. Anari, having spotted this gap, proposed a solution: a full-stack automation platform built with Angular and ASP.NET Core, integrating secure payment APIs with audit trails.

Launched in August 2023, the system transformed operations. Today, it processes millions monthly, serves over 1,500 users daily, and reduces reconciliation time from hours to minutes. More importantly, it’s still running reliably—years later, without him.

“That’s what matters. Building something sustainable that continues delivering value,” Anari noted

As his responsibilities at his work place expanded, he developed an auction application reducing asset disposal time by 40 percent, built analytics dashboards for executives, and became the institution’s software engineer.
The hospital promoted him twice and awarded him Employee of the Month in April 2022.

Commercial Validation

Anari’s success attracted attention from a Nigerian biotechnology laboratory, where the CEO faced a dilemma: purchase two expensive commercial systems or find an alternative.
Anari proposed building a unified platform from scratch.

The company agreed, contracting him for N2.8 million for four months’ work.
The resulting system—built with Angular and C# ASP.NET—now manages hundreds of biological samples daily and has been licensed to partner facilities. It proved Nigerian-developed healthcare technology could compete with international commercial software.

Perfect Scores and Novel Algorithms

Recognising that advancing in AI-driven healthcare required deeper foundations, Anari applied to a Scottish MSc programme in 2024. The Faculty of Science awarded him a competitive £5,000 scholarship—described as ‘highly competitive’.

What followed exceeded expectations as Anari achieved 180 out of 180 credits with distinction-level grades: 91 percent in Distributed Information Systems, 84 percent in Designing Usable Systems, 81 percent in Big Data Technologies. His dissertation developed the FAST algorithm for detecting Alzheimer’s patterns in brain scans.

His Supervisor’s Assessment:

Marvelled at his technical depth comparable to early-stage doctoral research, the panel recommended PhD progression for Anari, while featuring him at the university newspaper.

“I thought everyone just followed the syllabus. You understand requirements and deliver systematically”, one of the panel members said.

Addressing the NHS Crisis

Since January 2025, that combination—proven systems delivery plus cutting-edge AI research—has been applied to Britain’s most pressing healthcare challenge: 7.6 million patients on NHS waiting lists.

Anari now works at a health-tech startup developing AI-driven clinical platforms for NHS deployment. Their system uses machine learning for predictive risk stratification—identifying which surgical patients face higher risks, which waiting list patients might deteriorate, and where resources can be optimized.

The platform has processed over 2,500 patients in Wales and been adopted by NHS trusts. The company achieved SAMD Class II medical device certification, proving the system meets stringent clinical safety standards.

“I work on Django backend, React frontend, and ensuring compliance with security standards for NHS procurement. I also built a health economics calculator helping NHS trusts model ROI from deploying our AI systems”, Anari explained.

He discusses the 7.6 million waiting list with problem-solving posture, noting that, “It’s a systems optimisation challenge. AI can predict demand, allocate resources efficiently, and identify urgent cases. But it only works if properly integrated with NHS infrastructure.”

The Brain Circulation Philosophy

When I ask about brain drain, Anari reframes it immediately, emphasising he prefers brain circulation.

According to him, “The skills I developed in Lagos are directly applicable to UK healthcare challenges. Both contexts demand efficiency with limited resources, robust systems despite infrastructure constraints. My African experience makes me better at addressing UK problems.

“And eventually, the AI methods I’m learning here, the regulatory knowledge—that expertise will be valuable in African healthcare systems too. Skills should flow where they create impact, in both directions.”

Recently, an emerging talent his employer has committed to sponsoring his PhD research in explainable AI for clinical decision support, conducted through a university-industry collaboration.

Commenting he advocated that explainable “AI is critical for NHS adoption. Doctors need to understand why an AI system makes recommendations, not just trust a black box.”

The Excellence Paradox

Throughout our conversation, a disconnect persists between Anari’s achievements and his perception of them. He’s built systems processing millions in transactions, and achieved perfect academic scores, but it is worthy to note that he’s developing AI platforms deployed in one of the world’s largest healthcare systems.

Yet he repeatedly says “I thought everyone did this.”
When I point this out, he looks genuinely confused.

According to him, “But that is what problem-solving looks like. You identify inefficiencies, design solutions, implement them, measure results.”

Maybe the difference, he finally offers, is “I’ve always focused on building things that work, not things that look impressive. The hospital cafeteria system isn’t technically complex. But it works. It processes hundreds of thousands reliably. It’s been running for years. That operational reliability—that’s what matters.”

This perspective—relentlessly pragmatic, focused on measurable outcomes—may be precisely what makes his work effective.

Contributing to UK Innovation

Anari no doubt possesses immense digital talent that no one can ignore which perfectly makes him a huge asset that anyone can invest in and beyond sure to reap abundantly.

According to him, “The UK has invested in me—the scholarship, supervisors encouraging my research, my employer hiring me despite visa complexities,” he reflects.

“I want to contribute back long-term. Beyond my current work, that means mentoring engineers, participating in healthcare tech forums, publishing research, and eventually helping adapt these AI solutions for African contexts.”

He’s also developing an AI-powered fraud detection platform for online marketplaces, planned for early 2026 launch. “It emerged while house-hunting after my master’s—I realized how difficult it is to verify listings. It’s a problem AI could solve through hybrid machine learning and human verification.”

As our conversation ends, I realize Samuel Anari represents something significant: Nigerian technical talent competitive globally, bringing expertise from challenging operational environments to solve problems in developed economies, while maintaining connections to contribute back home.

Some people are good at selling themselves. This engineer doesn’t even realize what he’s built. And perhaps that’s exactly why his systems actually work.