Malaria Consortium, eGov Foundation Deepen Partnership On Digital Health Transformation

Malaria Consortium Nigeria and eGov Foundation have reaffirmed their commitment to advancing digital health transformation through the deployment of innovative technologies aimed at improving access to healthcare and strengthening resilient, sustainable health systems across Nigeria.

The renewed collaboration was highlighted during a landmark visit by the chief executive officer of eGov Foundation, Santhosh Nagaraj, to the Malaria Consortium Nigeria country office in Abuja, where both organisations explored opportunities to expand the use of digital public infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) in public health programme delivery.

Speaking during the meeting, the Country Director of Malaria Consortium Nigeria, Kolawole Maxwell, said the engagement was part of ongoing efforts to strengthen collaboration on the use of digital technologies to improve public health interventions and outcomes across the country.

Maxwell noted that the organisation has made significant progress in digitising public health campaigns, resulting in improved efficiency, transparency, accountability and programme coverage.

According to him, the Malaria Consortium fully digitised its campaigns in 2025, enabling the organisation to effectively manage interventions that currently benefit more than 20 million children across 14 states, with plans for further expansion in 2026.

He explained that the strategic partnership with eGov Foundation has enhanced beneficiary registration, drug distribution tracking, frontline health worker management, real-time reporting, supervision and performance monitoring through the deployment of the DIGIT platform.

“We are working together to digitise health campaigns and make them more efficient. Beyond saving costs, digital solutions are helping us improve the quality and effectiveness of our interventions, ensuring that no child is missed during campaigns,” Maxwell said.

He added that the organisation is exploring the use of artificial intelligence to strengthen the training of field workers, identify specific capacity gaps and support targeted supervision during health interventions.

He further explained that the collaboration is particularly focused on improving the implementation, monitoring and accountability of large-scale health programmes such as Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) and Azithromycin Mass Drug Administration (MDA), which currently reach millions of children across several Nigerian states.

According to him, the visit provided an opportunity for both organisations to jointly address operational challenges associated with large-scale health campaigns, including reaching underserved communities, improving data accuracy, reducing duplication, strengthening accountability in commodity distribution and promoting evidence-based decision-making.

Maxwell noted that the DIGIT platform offers capabilities for digitising household and beneficiary registration, tracking medicine distribution in real time, managing community health workers, monitoring programme performance and integrating data with national health information systems.

He revealed that the organisation is currently collaborating with the Kebbi State Government on initiatives aimed at supporting rice farmers through the tracking of agricultural inputs, while also identifying mosquito breeding sites around irrigation schemes and deploying technology-driven larval source management interventions.

Speaking earlier, eGov Foundation CEO Santhosh Nagaraj underscored the importance of digital technologies in promoting accountability and improving service delivery in public health programmes.

Nagaraj explained that the DIGIT platform enables programme managers to track interventions down to specific locations and beneficiaries, thereby improving transparency and ensuring that health commodities reach their intended recipients.

“The fact that you can identify that a bed net was delivered to a specific household at a particular location improves accountability. It enables programme managers to verify delivery and monitor outcomes more effectively,” he said.

He further noted that the platform supports beneficiary cohort tracking, allowing health managers to monitor whether children receive all required doses of SMC medications throughout multiple treatment cycles.

According to him, the consistent use of a standardised digital platform also reduces training costs, improves user familiarity and enhances operational efficiency over time.

The discussions also explored opportunities for collaboration in malaria surveillance and case management, integrated disease surveillance, community health systems strengthening, nutrition programmes, maternal and child health interventions and broader digital transformation initiatives within Nigeria’s health sector.

Nagaraj disclosed that eGov Foundation is also expanding the application of digital technologies beyond healthcare into sectors such as agriculture and environmental health.

Both organisations expressed optimism that the strengthened partnership would facilitate the development of scalable digital systems capable of improving health service delivery and outcomes not only in Nigeria but also across other African countries, including Chad, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Mozambique, Uganda and South Sudan.

The visit concluded with a reaffirmation of their shared commitment to leveraging technology, innovation and digital public infrastructure to strengthen public health programmes and deliver greater impact for vulnerable populations across Africa.