The Nigerian health sector remains grossly underfunded among several other challenges and fragmentation among health stakeholders results in the lack of a truly national/integrated framework for health service delivery.
A recent Knight Frank report estimated that Nigeria would need to invest about $82 billion in healthcare assets to reach the global average. Healthcare organisations continue to struggle with their day-to-day operations due to a myriad of constraints and process inefficiencies.
The above is the backdrop against which this latest groundbreaking public-private partnership initiative driven by the Lagos State Government was launched with a view to positioning Lagos, Nigeria’s largest economic hub, as a model for local governments in strategic health delivery interventions.
Governor Babajide Olusola Sanwoolu of Lagos State stressed that the Lagos State Smart Health Information Platform project is unprecedented in Nigeria.
In his remarks, the Governor asserted: “The signing of a concession agreement between the Lagos State Government and Interswitch for the implementation of the Smart Health Information Platform (SHIP) is a landmark development and marks the beginning of a comprehensive technological transformation in the Lagos State health sector aimed at improving access to health services for residents.”
Governor Sanwool further stated: “We believe this platform is an important and innovative approach that leverages technology to provide access to health information. It will provide numerous benefits and, by eliminating payment barriers, will encourage the public to be actively involved in the process.”
Leveraging its over 20 years of experience and strategic expertise in digitising transactions and aggregating technology platforms across Africa, the concession will support state governments to securely leverage data collected from electronic health records deployed across all hospitals (public and private) and associated locations within the industry value chain, improving the experience of all stakeholders, from administrators to healthcare workers to patients, ultimately leading to improved planning and policymaking.
The strategic objective is to address gaps within the healthcare delivery system by building an ecosystem that fosters deeper connections between stakeholders, connecting patients and doctors, clinics and government agencies, patients and healthcare data, essentially addressing fragmentation and solving operational issues for hospitals and healthcare providers through the robust and comprehensive technology infrastructure that LAGOS-SHIP represents.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, which was jointly signed by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Akin Abayomi and Special Adviser to the Governor on Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Mr. Bukola Odoye, and witnessed by the Lagos State Governor and elected members of the Lagos State Executive Council at the State House, Founder, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Interswitch, Marina Mitchell Elegbe, said:
“22 years ago, we started with a clear vision to solve Nigeria’s social problems by digitising the use of cash and making cash available to Nigerians just in time. Today, despite incremental efforts by Interswitch and others over the years, digital payments are still estimated to account for less than 20% of transactions across the economy.
This realization suggests that there is a great deal of hidden value, monetary and otherwise, in sectors and areas where government plays a key role, particularly in terms of health care, transport and other basic social services.
This vision, which we have had since the beginning, was the foundation for our acquisition of eClat Healthcare five years ago and initiatives such as Lagos-SHIP deploy strategic interventions that are aligned with that transformation roadmap.
“After a rigorous selection process, we are thrilled that the Lagos State Government has seen fit to partner with InterSwitch Group in their groundbreaking efforts to digitize their healthcare system by leveraging technology to bring together disparate elements onto one holistic platform, creating value and improving the experience for all stakeholders, just as we have done in the financial services sector.”
Also speaking at the signing ceremony, Managing Director, Interswitch eClat, Interswitch's healthtech venture, Dr. Wallace Ogfele, opined that the Lagos State Government's pioneering initiative, LAGOS-SHIP, was significant in advancing the landscape of healthcare management and operations in frontier markets like Nigeria, bringing it closer to what has been achieved in developed countries.
In his words, “the commissioning of the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform will significantly address many identified gaps in electronic health record management, essentially eliminating long-standing constraints such as process inefficiencies, limited transparency and lack of necessary tools and supplies.”
This partnership between the Lagos State Government and Interswitch is a unique model of public-private partnership in healthcare delivery and is expected to become a true reference point for national and local governments in Africa in the future.
