The National Health Insurance Authority has commenced the institutionalisation of Health Technology Assessment in Nigeria as part of efforts to improve healthcare spending and ensure scarce resources are channelled to interventions that offer greater value.
The NHIA Director-General, Dr Kelechi Ohiri, disclosed this on Wednesday while presenting a paper titled “Progress of Health Technology Assessment Institutionalisation in Nigeria” at the inauguration of the HTA Steering Committee and official flag-off of the initiative.
The event was formally inaugurated by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate.
Ohiri said the institutionalisation of HTA would strengthen evidence-based decisions on healthcare coverage, reimbursement, pricing and resource allocation as Nigeria pursues Universal Health Coverage.
He explained that the initiative was being integrated into the NHIA’s broader reforms to strengthen its strategic purchasing function rather than operated as a separate technical programme.
According to him, strategic purchasing involves making deliberate decisions on the healthcare services to purchase, the beneficiaries, providers, prices and the evidence supporting such decisions.
Ohiri said the need for reliable evidence had become more important as health insurance coverage expands and healthcare technologies become more numerous and expensive.
He described HTA as a systematic and multidisciplinary process for assessing the clinical, economic and broader value of health technologies.
The NHIA boss said the approach would support decisions on the design of benefit packages, healthcare coverage, reimbursement, adoption of technologies, pricing and allocation of resources.
As part of the institutionalisation process, the NHIA established a Strategic Purchasing Department and a dedicated HTA Division in 2025.
The Authority has since developed an HTA Framework, Reference Case, Process Guidelines, Deliberative Process, Committee Terms of Reference, Conflict of Interest Policy and Stakeholder Mapping and Analysis.
The documents, according to the presentation, provide the governance structure and operational guidelines needed to transform HTA from an emerging technical activity into a consistent institutional process.
The NHIA has also focused on building local expertise, with two PhD students and two Master’s students receiving postgraduate training in HTA at Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand.
It also conducted and published the Nigerian EQ-5D-5L valuation study to provide locally relevant data for calculating Quality-Adjusted Life Years.
The Authority said developing local evidence was important because HTA should not depend exclusively on evidence and preferences generated in other countries when relevant Nigerian data could be produced.
To assess the effectiveness of its framework, the NHIA conducted three pilot HTA studies involving kidney replacement therapy, colorectal cancer screening and sorafenib for advanced liver cancer.
The kidney replacement study examined the cost-utility of dialysis and kidney transplantation, while the colorectal cancer assessment considered different screening options. The sorafenib study provided a rapid assessment of clinical and economic evidence relating to advanced liver cancer.
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A key development occurred in October 2025 when the Coordinating Minister approved the National HTA, followed by approval of the HTA Steering Committee.
The inauguration of the committee and formal flag-off of HTA on Wednesday therefore mark a shift from building internal capacity and testing methodologies to establishing a coordinated national system.
The committee is expected to provide strategic oversight, guide the prioritisation of HTA topics, strengthen methodological standards and conflict-of-interest safeguards, and promote stakeholder and citizen participation.
It will also support capacity development, encourage the use of Nigerian evidence and strengthen mechanisms for applying HTA findings to health policies, benefit packages, strategic purchasing and reimbursement decisions.
The initiative is coming amid wider health financing reforms aimed at expanding insurance coverage, improving financial protection and promoting more efficient use of available healthcare resources.
HTA was also discussed during the National Health Financing Policy Dialogue held from September 1 to 4, 2025, under the theme, “Reimagining the Future of Health Financing in Nigeria.”
The dialogue brought together government officials, policymakers, development partners, civil society organisations, academia and private-sector stakeholders to deliberate on sustainable and equitable health financing.
The NHIA, however, noted that the 2025 dialogue did not establish its HTA initiative but formed part of the broader reform environment in which the institutionalisation process advanced.
The Authority said the success of HTA would ultimately be measured by its influence on healthcare resource decisions rather than the number of assessments conducted.
It said the objective was to make evidence a routine component of priority-setting and strategic purchasing while ensuring that decisions on benefit packages and healthcare coverage become more systematic and transparent.