Minister unveils top health-care social innovations and solicits private-sector support

The goal of the unveiling of top social innovation in Abuja on Monday was to create an enabling environment for social innovation by increasing evidence and its uptake, as well as fostering collaboration across all stakeholders and encouraging a culture of Nigerians solving their health challenges using the Nigerian formula.

The minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, who performed the unveiling ceremony, expressed delight at the development and promised that the ministry would provide the necessary support and collaboration to ensure the initiative’s success.

The event was organized by the Social Innovation in Health (SIHI) Nigeria hub, which is a branch of the SIHI global network and is based at Nnamdi Azikiwe University. SIHI is a World Health Organization (WHO) project with multiple international partners.

Dr. Onu emphasized that the innovation is a ray of hope because it demonstrates the country’s ability to find innovative solutions to societal problems, particularly in the health sector. He pledged that the ministry, under his leadership, will work to ensure the success of any effort to transform the nation’s economy into one that is knowledge-based and innovative, and that “we will continue to support you as you encourage creativity and innovation among our people.”

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He praised Nigeria for being one of the few African countries to host the SIHI hub.

“The top three social innovations in health that emerged from the various selection stages put in place by SIHI Nigeria in collaboration with the FMSTI are remarkable because they are all home-grown solutions,” he continued. When further developed, this could make a significant contribution to improving health care delivery in the country as well as export to other countries.

”We have shown that we have the capacity to find solutions to many of our problems,” he said, praising Nigeria’s ingenuity, creativity, inventiveness, and resourcefulness. We can no longer rely on people from other countries to solve our problems. We have everything we need to come up with our own solutions to our problems.

Many of the things we import into the country can now be produced locally, with the declaration that “we have the men, we have the women, and we have the materials to get it done.” This is the most effective way to create a self-sufficient and great nation that can provide enough jobs for citizens, combat poverty, hunger, disease, and illiteracy, and generate wealth for both the people and the country. This is precisely what the SIHI Nigeria hub at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, as well as all of the outstanding innovators here, aspire to,” the minister concludes.

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Stakeholders’ goodwill messages were read out at the unveiling ceremony. Senator Uche Ekwunife, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Science, Technology, and Innovation, praised the initiative and urged the team to make it a success.

She urged the government and health-sector stakeholders to prioritize primary health care and ensure that health-care dollars are realistic, noting that the essence of governance is for Nigerians to benefit from government programs and innovations.

The Director-General of NIPRD, Dr Obi Adigwe, Vice Chancellor of Nile University, and President of the Nigeria Academy of Science, Prof Eka Braide, were among those who delivered goodwill messages. Professor Charles Esimone, vice chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, had earlier welcomed attendees to the unveiling ceremony and expressed hope that it would meet its goals.

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In April 2020, WHO awarded a grant to Nnamdi Azikiwe University and the University of Ghana’s School of Public Health (both new generation hubs) to collaborate with Makarere University (a first generation hub) to disseminate social innovation in health in Africa, as well as to crowdsource for social innovation in health in the university and across the country.

To accomplish this, the team is collaborating with Nigeria’s Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, as well as other key health actors and innovators, non-governmental organizations, and the public and private sectors, to identify and promote social innovations in health.