For two months, doctors could not access test results through their usual digital systems. Over 6 million blood tests went unprocessed.

Critical HIV and tuberculosis treatments were delayed across a network serving 80% of South Africa’s population.

The BlackSuit ransomware gang had stolen 1.2 terabytes of patient data, forcing the entire laboratory system to rebuild from scratch after attackers deleted even the backup servers.

This should serve as a caution for Nigeria and other African nations racing to digitize healthcare records. As we accelerate electronic medical record (EMR) adoption, we risk importing America’s cybersecurity vulnerabilities along with the technology.

Nigeria’s Digital Health Acceleration

Nigeria is moving fast. The Federal Government’s Digital in Health Initiative, inaugurated by Health Minister Prof. Muhammed Ali Pate, aims to create a unified national EMR platform. Interswitch has deployed its eClinic system across four federal hospitals and partnered with Lagos State’s Smart Health Information Platform (SHIP). Private healthcare providers are following suit, eager to modernize patient data management.

This momentum is encouraging. Digital health records promise better patient outcomes, reduced medical errors, and more efficient healthcare delivery. But speed without security creates catastrophic vulnerability.

Why South Africa’s Experience Matters:

South Africa offers the most relevant case study for Nigeria because our healthcare contexts are similar: constrained public health budgets, significant HIV and TB patient populations requiring continuous monitoring, and healthcare systems serving predominantly poor populations who cannot afford private alternatives when public systems fail.

When NHLS systems went down, the impact was immediate and devastating. Doctors had to make clinical decisions without lab results. Major operations were postponed indefinitely.

All test results had to be communicated manually by telephone, a process prone to errors and delays that cost lives.

Though systems were restored after two months of intensive work, the breach demonstrated how digital transformation without adequate security governance can cripple essential health services.

The attack was not sophisticated nation-state espionage. It was a criminal ransomware gang exploiting predictable vulnerabilities in healthcare IT infrastructure, the same vulnerabilities that exist in systems being deployed across Nigeria today.

Learning From America’s Expensive Mistakes

The United States, despite decades of EMR experience and sophisticated cybersecurity infrastructure, continues to suffer devastating healthcare breaches.

The Change Healthcare attack in February 2024 exposed 190 million patient records and forced a $22 million ransom payment.

Ascension Health’s systems were affected for weeks. American healthcare providers have collectively paid billions in ransoms, remediation costs, and regulatory penalties.

Recent research from Black Book Market Research, published this month, reveals the scale of the problem: 74% of Chief Information Security Officers now identify EHR and AI vendors as their top emerging cyber risk.

Among African healthcare leaders surveyed, 71% in South Africa reported that third-party EHR or billing platforms were involved in major security incidents, with 55% experiencing multi-day system downtime.

Critically, 91% believe current risk management practices are inadequate for modern digital health environments.

These were not failures of technical competence; they were failures of governance, inadequate security frameworks, weak access controls, and insufficient oversight of third-party vendors who handle sensitive patient data.

Nigeria cannot afford to repeat these mistakes. When American healthcare systems face breaches, they have insurance, legal recourse, and regulatory enforcement mechanisms; When African healthcare systems fail, patients simply lose access to care.

What Nigeria Must Do Differently:

As Nigeria accelerates Electronic Medical Records adoption, we need governance frameworks embedded from day one, not bolted on after breaches occur.

This requires: Mandatory security standards for all Electronic Medical Records systems. The National Health Insurance Authority and the Federal Ministry of Health should establish minimum cybersecurity requirements before approving any EMR platform for deployment.

These standards must address encryption, access controls, backup systems that cannot be deleted by attackers, and vendor security audits.

Robust data governance frameworks. Nigerian patients need clear rights regarding their health data; who can access it, how it’s used, and what recourse exists when breaches occur.

The Nigeria Data Protection Act provides a foundation, but healthcare-specific regulations are essential.

Security-by-design requirements for vendors. Companies deploying EMR systems in Nigeria must demonstrate security capabilities before implementation, not after breaches.

This includes penetration testing, incident response plans, and cybersecurity insurance.

The Black Book Research data shows that 63% of healthcare organizations globally experienced vendor-linked incidents in the last 24 months, we must require vendors to meet security standards as a condition of market entry.

Regional coordination.: Healthcare data breaches don’t respect national borders. ECOWAS should establish regional cybersecurity standards for health data, enabling member-states to share threat intelligence and coordinate responses to emerging threats.

Investment in cybersecurity capacity: Nigeria needs trained cybersecurity professionals specializing in healthcare IT. Universities and technical institutions should prioritize healthcare cybersecurity training programs to build the workforce needed to secure our digital health infrastructure.

The Cost of Getting it Wrong

The consequences of inadequate healthcare cybersecurity extend beyond data theft. When EMR systems fail, hospitals revert to paper records, but staff trained exclusively on digital systems struggle with manual processes.

Patients lose access to critical medical histories. Treatment decisions are made with incomplete information. People die from preventable complications.

The economic costs are equally severe. Healthcare breaches destroy institutional trust, drive patients to private providers they cannot afford, and create liability that cash-strapped public hospitals cannot manage.

In South Africa’s case, the two-month system disruption meant postponed surgeries, delayed diagnoses, and interruptions in chronic disease management for millions of patients.

The full health impact of those delays may never be fully quantified, but research from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency shows that ransomware attacks on healthcare systems correlate with increased mortality rates, not just during the attack, but in the months that follow as hospitals operate under degraded capacity.

A Chance to Lead, Not Follow

African nations have an opportunity that the United States did not: we can learn from others’ mistakes before implementing healthcare digitization at scale. We do not need to experience billion-dollar breaches to understand that security cannot be an afterthought.

The question is not whether Nigeria should adopt EMR systems; digital transformation is necessary for healthcare modernization. The question is whether we will implement them with the security and governance frameworks that prevent catastrophic failures, or whether we will rush to digitize and pay the price in compromised patient data, disrupted care, and preventable deaths.

The South African breach shows us the cost of getting this wrong. American healthcare breaches demonstrate that sophisticated technology alone doesn’t guarantee security. Global data confirms that even advanced healthcare systems struggle with vendor-introduced vulnerabilities and inadequate risk management.

Nigeria has a chance to do better, but only if we prioritize governance alongside innovation. We must require security standards before deployment, not after a disaster. We must mandate vendor accountability, not hope for best practices. We must build cybersecurity capacity, not assume problems will solve themselves.

We cannot afford to digitize first and secure later. The health and safety of millions of Nigerians depend on getting this right from the start.

Aisha Arigbabu is a cybersecurity researcher and PhD candidate at the University of the Cumberlands, focusing on AI governance and healthcare security. Her lead-authored research on AI-enabled healthcare systems has been cited 76 times, with her broader body of work accumulating over 130 citations from researchers globally.

The company showcased its cutting-edge health technology solutions at the 111th Regular Meeting and 2025 Annual Conference of the Committee of Chief Medical Directors (CMDs) and Managing Directors (MDs) of Federal Tertiary Hospitals in Nigeria (CCMDFTH), hosted by the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) in Enugu.

The four-day conference, which held from Tuesday, October 14 to Friday, October 17, 2025, at the Best Western Hotel, Independence Layout, Enugu, convened healthcare leaders, policymakers, and technology partners from across the country under the theme, “Smarter Processes, Better Healthcare.” It featured technical sessions, interactive exhibitions, and high-level discussions centred on advancing smarter healthcare delivery systems through digital innovation.

Interswitch featured prominently at the event, setting up an engaging exhibition booth and delivering a high-impact presentation during the segment dedicated to corporate innovations.

Babatunde Fadeyi, vice president, Health Ecosystem (Public Sector), Industry Ecosystem & Platforms (Interswitch Indeco), led the presentation, which drew significant interest from participants including CMDs, MDs, and senior administrators of tertiary health institutions.

During his presentation, Fadeyi reiterated Interswitch’s broader mission to enable a connected, data-driven healthcare ecosystem in Nigeria.

He said:

“At Interswitch, we are not just building technology, we are building bridges between care providers, patients, and policymakers. Through platforms like HIMS, eClinic, and Smarthealth, we’re empowering hospitals and HMOs to embrace digital transformation, making healthcare delivery more transparent, efficient, and patient-centred.”

Interswitch showcased its suite of cutting-edge digital health solutions including the Health Information Management System (HIMS), eClinic, and Smarthealth, designed to simplify hospital operations, enhance administrative efficiency, and improve patient outcomes across hospitals, Health Maintenance Organisations (HMOs), and related institutions.

The HIMS platform connects healthcare providers, HMOs, and subscribers through a unified digital ecosystem that streamlines claims processing, data exchange, and communication across the healthcare value chain. eClinic enables healthcare centres to transition from paper-based processes to electronic medical records, while Smarthealth empowers individuals with tools for telemedicine, medical geolocation, symptom checking, and personalised wellness tracking.

Participants, including CCMDFTH Chairman, Prof. Emem Bassey, visited the Interswitch exhibition stand and commended the company’s contribution to the digitalisation of healthcare processes, as well as its commitment to fostering efficiency and transparency across Nigeria’s health system.

Throughout the event, delegates interacted with Interswitch’s team of product specialists, exploring the potential of these solutions to address long-standing challenges in hospital administration, data management, and patient access.

Many participants lauded Interswitch’s innovative approach to tackling inefficiencies that have historically hindered effective healthcare delivery in the country.

By actively engaging healthcare leaders at the 111th CCMDFTH Conference, Interswitch continues to reinforce its role as a catalyst for digital healthcare transformation in Nigeria.

Building on this momentum, the company aims to deepen collaboration with hospitals, policymakers, and technology partners to scale its healthtech solutions nationwide, driving smarter processes, stronger systems, and better health outcomes for all.

Commissioned by the Honourable Minister of State for Health, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, the launch marks the fourth deployment of the eClinic solution in federal health institutions, following earlier rollouts in Osun, Ogun, and Edo States.

This milestone represents another significant step in the Federal Ministry of Health’s drive to modernise healthcare delivery through digital innovation, and builds on Interswitch’s commitment to healthcare innovation, following its recent partnership with the Lagos State Government on the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform (SHIP).

Built to streamline clinical workflows, enhance care coordination, and improve patient outcomes, Interswitch’s eClinic offers healthcare professionals real-time access to comprehensive and centralised patient records.

It also supports a broad range of hospital functions, including patient registration, diagnostics tracking, pharmacy management, and administrative reporting.

Designed with Nigeria’s healthcare infrastructure realities in mind, the platform operates in both online and offline modes, ensuring continuous uptime and uninterrupted service delivery.

The Minister of State for Health emphasised that the deployment of the EMR in Enugu aligns with the Ministry’s broader vision of modernising healthcare services and building a healthier Nigeria.

He noted that the Federal Government remains committed to fostering meaningful collaborations with the private sector to deliver measurable impact for Nigerians.

According to him, digital systems like the Interswitch’s eClinic enable federal hospitals to deliver more accurate, efficient, and patient-focused care.

By reducing administrative burdens, improving record-keeping, and supplying real-time data for planning and evaluation, these tools are empowering healthcare workers and strengthening service delivery across the board.

Speaking at the event, Babatunde Fadeyi, vice president, Health Ecosystem (Public Sector), Interswitch, reiterated the company’s commitment to innovation, strategic partnership, and improving health outcomes nationwide. He stated:

“Interswitch’s collaboration with key stakeholders, including government institutions, reflects our dedication to drive digital transformation across critical sectors such as healthcare. With eClinic, our EMR solution, we are empowering healthcare professionals to work more efficiently and deliver improved outcomes for patients across the country.”

Interswitch’s approach to deployment has been fuelled by deep stakeholder engagement and continuous learning. Each rollout is adapted to the specific needs of the host hospital, ensuring the solution is both technically sound, customisable, and user-friendly.

From needs assessments to user interface testing and staff training, healthcare workers have played an essential role in shaping the platform and providing feedback that has guided continuous improvements.

With the successful launch in Enugu, Interswitch is set to expand the eClinic platform to more federal and state health institutions nationwide.

Future enhancements will introduce AI-powered diagnostic support, health insurance integration, and improved supply chain visibility, all contributing to a more responsive, connected, and data-driven health ecosystem.

Through its strategic interventions and technology-driven solutions, Interswitch continues to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare in Nigeria, advancing digital inclusion, and setting new standards in health service delivery.

As Interswitch deepens its investment in health-tech innovation, the company is helping to shape a smarter, more inclusive healthcare future for Nigeria, one where digitalised systems drive quality, accessibility, and efficiency across all levels of care.

The event, themed “Expanding Access to Quality Healthcare: Transforming Nigeria through Innovation, Partnership, and Sustainability,” took place on February 27th and 28th, at the Oriental Hotel in Lagos, bringing together key stakeholders across the healthcare value chain, including policymakers, industry leaders, healthcare professionals, and technology innovators.

The event served as a platform for discussions on digital transformation in healthcare financing, the role of technology in improving service delivery, and strategic partnerships aimed at facilitating sustainable growth within the industry.

As a key player in digital payments, Interswitch showcased its suite of innovative healthcare solutions, including eClinic, its electronic medical record suite and health insurance management systems. The company also demonstrated its secure and reliable digital payment platforms, designed to help healthcare providers streamline revenue collection, enhance service delivery, and improve access to quality care.

Babajide Oyeduntan, vice president, Business Development and Sales, Interswitch eClat, reiterated the company’s unwavering commitment to leveraging technology to advance healthcare operations in Nigeria.

“At Interswitch, we recognize the transformative power of technology in driving efficiency across systems and organizations. While we have successfully used technology to deliver seamless payment solutions, we are now extending our expertise to other sectors, including healthcare, to enhance productivity, sustainability, and profitability.

Our healthcare solutions are designed to empower providers by simplifying the adoption of technology, improving patient management, and enabling sustainable growth. As a trusted partner in delivering innovative technology solutions, we have a growing portfolio of satisfied customers who have experienced increased productivity through our platforms. We are thrilled to participate in this forum to share our solutions and collaborate with other stakeholders to drive the future of healthcare in Nigeria,” Oyeduntan said.

Beyond its sponsorship of the HFN Conference, Interswitch has a track record of driving digital transformation in Nigeria’s healthcare sector.

Notably, its recent partnership with the Lagos State Government led to the development of the Lagos Smart Health Information Platform (Lagos SHIP).

The initiative, aimed at digitising healthcare services in Lagos State, highlights Interswitch’s broader commitment to leveraging technology to tackle inefficiencies across essential industries like healthcare.

By integrating digital solutions into healthcare administration and payments, Interswitch continues to enhance service delivery, improve patient experiences, and drive financial sustainability, reinforcing its role as a catalyst for innovation in Nigeria’s healthcare sector.

Through continued sponsorship and active participation in key industry events like the HFN Conference, Interswitch remains at the forefront of championing digital adoption in healthcare, driving financial inclusion, and fostering an ecosystem where technology empowers healthcare providers and patients alike.

The health startup is on a mission to leave an impact in the Nigeria’s Healthcare sector by providing a solution that guarantees easy access, security in data collection and storage.

The company also wants to ensure that all patients across Africa can have a unified healthcare management system that allows easy sharing of data among healthcare providers.

Its payment system will ease the completion of transactions and generate revenue to sustain and generate revenue for our clients.

Tijani Olatunji speaks to the vision anchored on using technology to create easy access to healthcare services across Africa for sharing of data among healthcare providers.

Can you provide more details about the background and motivation behind PrimedeHealth’s mission to digitise healthcare in Nigeria? What challenges or issues in the healthcare system prompted the need for digital solution?

The lack of effective digitization in our healthcare facilities presents significant risks that far exceed the benefits. When we initially embarked on the development of Medical Records, it became evident that numerous challenges were faced by patients in medical facilities.

Patients, including senior citizens were seen queuing heavily even while they needed healthcare. Other issues were ease of record keeping and retrieval, ease of making payment including privacy and security concerns. Some patients also wanted access to their records.

The management of the facilities needed to be able to easily audit their papers real time to avoid theft. They were looking for a way to create a faster way of reporting and monitoring logs while keeping proper and secured data. There was lack of data analytics and this resulted in product and drugs wastage after expiry.

The medical doctors wanted to clock in patients faster and reduce the workload and so was the nurses, radiologist and every other end user.

Our primary objectives as a technology solutions company were to address issues such as data/record availability, data security, inefficiency, and compliance. However, we had to synchronize our objectives with the problems of the available market to create a Problem-Solution-Fit.

Then we embarked on creating the indigenously built solution and our first Minimum Viable Product called eClinic.

eClinic was an Electronic Medical Records platform that was later redesigned and rebranded to our most recent solution used by various facilities across the country called SmartClinic.

We received support and backing from the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) and this in turn provided a boost in confidence as we worked towards creating an interoperable system where every stakeholder including the Patients are made important.

Can you please elaborate on the digital solutions and technologies PrimedeHealth has developed or implemented to digitise healthcare services?

For a more efficient care delivery and patient access to healthcare, the base and foundational platform we have is the SmartClinic used by end users to simplify their work. When we say ‘end users’, this refers to the Record Officers, the Nurses, the Doctors, Radiologists, Surgeons, Dentists, Opticians, Storekeepers and every other person who works in our medical facilities.

We carried out extensive market research and we created the SmartApp which is for the Patients access. On this app, patients can access their records, book appointments, contact the facility directly, make payments easily and avoid queuing.

We proceeded to create SmartCards for patients with a scan-able QR code which gives patient’s access to the SmartApp.

Then we have the SmartKiosk which is a self-service that will be manned by our staff whose main responsibility is to assist people who are not tech savvy and do not have smart phones for access to various tasks the patients want to carry out.

How have these solutions improved patient care and access to healthcare in both urban and rural areas?

With over 4 million patients on our platform registered to various medical facilities across the country, we have trained over 5,000 end users to use the SmartClinic while effectively attending to patients.

Our partnership with the Government on all levels has assisted the facilities in creating value for all stakeholders involved in the value chain.

Faster response and scheduled time have improved care delivery in all levels. Our solution has also reduced revenue loss in the facilities and created transparency due to the various logs and audit trails we have in place. Remote yet monitored actions on the platform has created a telehealth platform that enhance remote consulting between an end user (usually the doctors) and patients.

However, asides from assisting the people in rural areas in accessing healthcare, the facilities in rural areas can get healthcare the same way the facilities in the urban areas get healthcare provided they have proper infrastructure.

There are facilities in rural areas who have set up amazing infrastructure better than their counterparts in the urban regions.

All thanks to the MDs and CMDs of these facilities who undoubtedly embraced the technology infrastructure we provide and preach.

You mentioned training over 1,000 medical doctors to use digital solutions. What has been the impact of this training on healthcare delivery?

It has been particularly overwhelming. We live in a country where a lot of our medical Doctors are very enthusiastic about their jobs and delivering care to patients.

We are very hopeful that the regime of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will make the affairs of the Medical Doctors and other care providers a top priority in ensuring we have a stable healthcare system with lesser brain drain as applied in the case of Nigeria.

Some Doctors opt in to use their personal devices and Network when they realise there is a downtime cause by the infrastructure of the facilities. This downtime can be mitigated and reduced to the barest minimum considering the intricacies of their job.

How do you ensure that healthcare professionals and patients are comfortable and proficient in using these digital tools?

We have put parameters in place. We made sure we offer comprehensive training programs which includes physical and virtual trainings, user manual in various departments, user friendly interfaces, 24/7 technical support and properly laid down feedback mechanism.

All of these create a continuous learning culture.

For patients, we made sure patient education programs are constantly being carried out by our support team. These responsibilities are vested upon the guys in the operations team.

We do not take user friendly patient portals for granted and quite a lot of patient feedback has enabled us to understand the Product-Market-Fit. The feedback also assisted us to know we had to create accessible support channels where we learnt that a lot patient were very keen on data privacy.

Managing data for over four million patients is a significant responsibility. How does PrimedeHealth prioritise data security and patient privacy?

At Primed, Data security and patient data privacy is something we take very important. However, it will be quite unreasonable for us to go into details of our hosting and data security as this will only attract intrusion attempt to us.

Can you explain how patients can access their medical records? 

We have a patient app which is linked to their registered hospital. Upon registration, each patient can get into the mobile app or the web application, log in and view their records which is a constitutional right of every patient.

What are some of the challenges you have encountered during the digitisation process, and how have you addressed them?

During our pilot projects, we encountered quite a lot of challenges but like always, there are not challenges that cannot be conquered with the right approach and a great team.

Adaptation will always remain a key challenge when introducing technology to end users. Especially when you are moving from one end of the prism (Paper charts) to the other (Fully electronic tech driven solutions).

We funded quite a few projects ourselves. It is sometimes difficult getting support when building Proof of Concept. Nobody wants to know the prospects your solution carries but you however need support to make Proof of concept building easier. We were however lucky, like I said earlier to gain the trust of some few leaders who gave us the platform to deliver.

If we have end users with the right mindset and there is funding support, a lot more can be achieved very quickly. We are very grateful for support and collaborations from financial partners.

What are PrimedeHealth’s plans, especially in advancing healthcare digitisation and patient-centered care in Nigeria?

Presently we are deployed in about 40% of the Federal Government Hospitals and we aim to taking it further to 75% before year ending 2023. We will be focusing on expansion into other African Countries and the rest of the world.

To obtain a proper robust interoperable platform, the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning models are presently being worked on and would be unveiled to end users, patients and every other stakeholder.

We need to enhance data collection and integration in a way that our team will be able to support facilities in a smoother and more seamless approach. When we are done training these models which of course will take some time, they will go through testing and validation.

We will also continue to monitor, evaluate and improve our processes. Partnerships and collaborations are also very important in creating a technology driven economy and we will continue to engage stakeholders.

These are steps we are carrying out to make the journey technology driven.

Ideas, partnerships and Solutions is what we live by.