The federal government has urged the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) to strengthen professional accountability and take a leading role in the fight against quackery in the health sector.

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Iziaq Salako, made the call on Wednesday in Abuja at the NMA’s First Ordinary National Executive Council meeting of the new National Executive Committee for 2026.

The meeting, themed “Transforming Healthcare Practice in Nigeria: Building Trust, Accountability and Collaborative Excellence”, brought together medical practitioners, senior members of the profession, government officials and policymakers.

Health sector reforms

Mr Salako said the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, signed in December 2023, had recorded 84 per cent implementation, according to the 2025 Joint Annual Review.

He said the health sector’s share of the national budget had risen to 5.2 per cent, while funding under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) increased from N131.5 billion in 2024 to N299 billion in 2026.

He said the increased investment had translated into improvements in primary healthcare delivery.

“More than 8,000 primary health care centres now receive direct facility financing, close to 4,000 PHCs have been upgraded, and monthly patient visits to Fund-supported facilities have risen from about 10 million in early 2024 to 45 million by mid-2025,” Mr Salako said.

He also highlighted gains under the Maternal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative, saying the 172 local government areas with the highest burden recorded a 17 per cent reduction in maternal deaths and a 12 per cent reduction in newborn deaths.

According to him, more than 48,000 women received free emergency obstetric care, while over 4,000 free caesarean sections were performed in National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) empanelled facilities.

He added that more than 4,700 women received free vesico-vaginal fistula repairs across 207 facilities.

On health insurance, Mr Salako said coverage had increased from about 16 million Nigerians in 2023 to more than 22 million.

Health workforce

Mr Salako said 37,000 health workers had been recruited into federal hospitals since 2024, while medical school quotas had been doubled to 10,000.

He added that N110 billion had been committed to upgrading 18 training institutions.

He also said a National Policy on Health Workforce Migration and a Diaspora Health Portal had been adopted.

Call for accountability

Mr Salako said the government was delivering on funding and policy, but patients ultimately judged the health system by their experiences with healthcare professionals.

He therefore urged the NMA to strengthen clinical governance, ensure accurate reporting of deaths and conclude disciplinary cases.

He also condemned absenteeism, the diversion of patients to private facilities and informal payments by healthcare workers.

“The government will never sacrifice public health on the altar of professional solidarity,” he said.

On quackery, Mr Salako described the practice as “homicide by instalment”.

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He also cited the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control’s (NAFDAC) removal of falsified drugs worth N1 trillion from Aba, Onitsha and Lagos.

Organ harvesting investigation

Mr Salako also announced an investigation into a viral report alleging the existence of an organ-harvesting syndicate in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

He said the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, through its National Tertiary Health Institutions Standard Committee, had developed national standards and guidelines for organ and tissue transplantation.

According to him, the guidelines require informed consent and prohibit the commercialisation of organ and tissue transplantation.

The federal government has been urged to embrace Artificial Intelligence (AI) and increase domestic investment in health research to safeguard Nigeria’s public health system amid declining international donor funding.

Alash’le Abimiku, Executive Director of the International Research Centre of Excellence (IRCE) at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), made the call at a news conference in Abuja.

The briefing was held ahead of the fourth IRCE Annual Scientific Symposium scheduled to take place from 31 August to 1 September.

The symposium is themed “Shaping the Future of Public Health Research through Sustainable Funding, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) and Innovation.”

Ms Abimiku said recent cuts in global health funding, including support from major international donors, underscored the need for Nigeria to strengthen local financing for research and build sustainable capacity.

She said stronger domestic investment would help the country address emerging health challenges and reduce its vulnerability to fluctuations in external funding.

Ms Abimiku said that many Nigerian researchers relied heavily on international grants, warning that shrinking research budgets could weaken the country’s ability to compete for funding and generate locally relevant evidence.

“We are asking government to begin investing in research. It may not be as much as international funding, but it can keep researchers productive, build capacity and sustain innovation.

“Disease outbreaks will not stop because funding has been reduced. HIV, cancer, sickle cell disease, Lassa fever and future pandemics will continue to challenge us, so we must prepare,” she said.

According to her, AI presents an opportunity to improve research productivity, accelerate data analysis and strengthen evidence-based decision-making when deployed responsibly and ethically.

She, however, cautioned researchers against over-dependence on AI, emphasising that innovation, critical thinking and scientific curiosity must remain central to the research process.

“AI can summarise years of research within seconds, but researchers must continue to ask critical questions, experiment and innovate.

“We must use AI to enhance, not replace, scientific thinking,” she said.

The symposium

Ms Abimiku explained that the symposium would explore how AI and machine learning could complement reduced research funding by improving efficiency while safeguarding data privacy and ethical standards.

She added that a pre-symposium hackathon had been introduced to expose researchers, healthcare professionals, and young innovators to practical AI tools to solve public health challenges.

According to her, the initiative is designed to bridge the gap between experienced researchers and younger professionals already familiar with emerging AI technologies.

Ms Abimiku urged policymakers, industry leaders and researchers to collaborate to develop sustainable research funding mechanisms that reduce Nigeria’s dependence on foreign support.

She cited South Africa’s model of competitive, government-funded research grants as an example of how countries could sustain scientific innovation despite reductions in international funding.

Also speaking, Sophia Osawe, head of research operations at IRCE, said the centre’s Inform Africa programme was already deploying AI and machine learning to strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness for disease outbreaks.

Ms Osawe explained that the programme used big data to predict disease trends and identify communities requiring urgent interventions, including vaccine deployment during pandemics such as HIV and COVID-19.

“These AI-powered tools help the government identify where interventions are most needed so resources can be deployed more efficiently and lives protected,” she said.

Similarly, James Onyemata, head of molecular diagnostics at IRCE, emphasised Nigeria’s strategic role in regional disease surveillance and genomic monitoring.

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According to him, with Nigeria accounting for about half of West Africa’s population, genomic surveillance data generated in the country are essential for developing vaccines effective against circulating virus strains.

“If we do not provide this information, vaccines developed elsewhere may not adequately protect populations in West Africa because they may not target the variants circulating here,” Onyemata said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the symposium will continue with technical sessions on ethical AI, genomic surveillance, pandemic preparedness, sustainable research financing and innovations aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s public health system.

(NAN)