By Simpson Global Media News Desk
Nigeria is taking steps to bring more data generated by private hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies and other healthcare providers into the country’s national disease surveillance system, following a new cooperation agreement between the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN) and the PharmAccess Foundation.
The three organisations signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in Abuja to establish a pilot for automated private-sector Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) reporting into the NCDC’s Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System, commonly known as SORMAS.
The initiative, announced on September 30 and reported into October 1, is designed to test whether digital and interoperable reporting systems can make disease information from participating private healthcare facilities more complete, timely and easier to integrate into national surveillance.
The partners also intend to reduce the administrative burden on private facilities that have to report diseases and other public-health events while maintaining existing statutory reporting requirements.
NCDC Director-General Dr Jide Idris said private healthcare facilities hold a significant portion of the information needed to understand health events across Nigeria.
He said effective disease surveillance and health security could not be achieved without meaningful engagement with the private sector, because hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, patent medicine vendors and other points of care generate information that can contribute to understanding what is happening across the health system.
The agreement does not represent an immediate nationwide switch to a new reporting system.
Instead, it establishes a pilot through which participating facilities and the organisations involved can test technical arrangements, reporting workflows, data integration and safeguards before lessons from the exercise are considered for wider application.
That distinction is important because the partners have described the initiative as a system-learning exercise rather than the completion of a nationwide private-sector digital surveillance rollout.
Moving Beyond Separate Data Streams
Nigeria already has a national disease surveillance architecture built around Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response.
The NCDC says IDSR has been the country’s adopted public-health surveillance strategy since 2001. The approach is intended to streamline disease surveillance activities, support early detection and facilitate a coordinated response to outbreaks and other public-health events.
The country has also invested heavily in digital tools to strengthen that architecture.
SORMAS, the Surveillance, Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System, was adopted by the NCDC as a digital surveillance tool and has been used for case-based surveillance, outbreak response, laboratory information and related functions.
NCDC documentation describes SORMAS as an electronic platform supporting surveillance and outbreak management, including case investigation, contact tracing, laboratory sample management and other response activities.
The NCDC’s 2025 weekly epidemiological reporting also highlighted continued use of SORMAS across Nigeria, saying the system had been extended across all states and the Federal Capital Territory, with local government areas reporting through the platform. The agency linked the digital approach to more timely reporting and faster detection of outbreaks.
The new private-sector pilot therefore builds on an existing national digital surveillance infrastructure rather than creating an entirely separate platform.
The central question is how effectively information generated outside government-owned facilities can be connected to that infrastructure.
Private healthcare is an important component of Nigeria’s healthcare environment. Nigerians receive care through a mixture of public hospitals, private hospitals and clinics, laboratories, pharmacies, patent medicine outlets and other providers.
When health events occur in facilities outside the public system, the information generated there can be important to national surveillance.
If such information is delayed, incomplete or difficult to transfer into the national system, public-health authorities may have a less complete picture of disease activity.
The new pilot is intended to address part of that challenge.
What the New Pilot Will Test
Under the agreement, participating private facilities will test automated reporting of IDSR information into SORMAS.
The objective is to determine whether digital interoperability can allow information collected during routine healthcare delivery to be transferred more efficiently into the national surveillance environment.
The partners said the pilot will examine the quality, completeness and timeliness of surveillance data while reducing the reporting burden on private providers.
That means the initiative has both a technological and operational dimension.
The technology has to allow different systems to communicate appropriately.
At the same time, healthcare workers must be able to use the system without creating a new layer of complicated administrative work.
For a doctor, nurse, laboratory scientist or other healthcare worker in a busy private facility, disease reporting competes with patient consultations, laboratory work, documentation, medication management and other responsibilities.
A surveillance system that requires repetitive manual data entry can therefore become difficult to maintain consistently.
The pilot is intended to explore ways of embedding reporting more naturally into existing provider workflows.
HFN First Vice President Dr Benson Ayodele Cole said the cooperation followed an earlier IDSR survey conducted by HFN with PharmAccess.
According to the partners, that survey was used to understand how private providers currently experience surveillance reporting, including some of the challenges they face.
The new stage moves from identifying those challenges to testing practical and technology-enabled solutions.
Cole said the intention was to develop approaches that fit the way healthcare providers actually work rather than imposing a system disconnected from their daily operations.
Why Private-Sector Reporting Matters
Disease surveillance depends on information.
Health authorities need to know where cases are being detected, what diseases are appearing, how quickly they are increasing, which populations are affected and where public-health interventions may be required.
For infectious diseases in particular, delays in detecting unusual patterns can complicate response efforts.
The NCDC's mandate includes preventing, detecting and controlling diseases of public-health importance, coordinating surveillance systems, supporting states during smaller outbreaks and leading responses to larger disease outbreaks.
The agency operates surveillance and epidemiology structures at national and subnational levels, including State Surveillance Officers across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The quality of information reaching those structures is consequently important.
A surveillance system does not only depend on the existence of a digital platform. It also depends on whether relevant healthcare providers identify cases correctly, submit required information, submit it promptly and use appropriate reporting procedures.
That is why the new agreement places emphasis on both technology and provider engagement.
The partners are not simply attempting to connect computers.
They are attempting to connect different parts of Nigeria's healthcare system.
From Paper Reporting to Digital Surveillance
Nigeria's experience with SORMAS illustrates the country's broader transition from largely paper-based surveillance processes toward digital reporting.
NCDC records show that the agency adopted SORMAS as a tool for case-based digital surveillance and subsequently expanded its functionality.
The platform was designed to bring several elements of surveillance and outbreak response into an integrated digital environment.
NCDC documentation has also described SORMAS as part of a broader system that supports real-time reporting and data management.
The agency's 2023–2027 strategy includes objectives relating to the deployment of SORMAS to qualifying health facilities and interoperability between SORMAS and other reporting systems. The strategy specifically identifies interoperability as part of efforts to strengthen surveillance capacity.
The agency's more recent reporting likewise describes SORMAS as a real-time case-based and immediate-reporting tool within Nigeria's surveillance architecture.
The latest agreement therefore fits into a longer-term national direction toward connected health information systems.
The new element is the effort to improve automated participation from private healthcare providers.
The Technology Challenge
Interoperability is often one of the most difficult parts of digital health.
Healthcare providers may use different electronic medical record systems, laboratory information systems, pharmacy software or other digital tools.
Those systems may store information in different formats.
A national surveillance platform, however, needs information presented in a form that can be interpreted, analysed and acted upon consistently.
The PharmAccess Foundation is expected to provide technical assistance for the pilot.
The organisation's role includes expertise in interoperability, digital standards and system architecture, as well as knowledge transfer and documentation of lessons learned.
Country Director Njide Ndili said PharmAccess would draw on experience from Kenya in designing disease-surveillance systems around the realities of healthcare delivery.
The intention, according to the organisation, is to apply relevant lessons while developing an approach suited to Nigeria's health system.
This makes the pilot an exercise not only in connecting databases but also in deciding what information should move between systems, how it should be formatted, who should have access and how quickly it should be made available.
Data Protection and Confidentiality
The handling of health information is another major component of the project.
Medical information can contain sensitive details about individuals.
Consequently, any system connecting private providers with a national surveillance platform must operate within applicable data-protection and health-information governance requirements.
The partners said the pilot's data-sharing arrangements will prioritise data security, confidentiality, non-disclosure and appropriate use.
They also stated that the pilot will operate within applicable data-protection laws and health-information governance requirements.
The safeguards are particularly relevant because automated reporting can increase the volume and speed of information moving between healthcare systems.
Greater speed does not remove the need for controls.
A surveillance system has to distinguish between information needed for public-health action and information that should remain protected.
It also needs appropriate procedures for access, storage, transmission and use.
The partners have not described the pilot as changing the legal reporting duties of private providers.
Instead, the agreement explicitly states that the pilot is intended to support system learning and improvement and will not alter existing statutory reporting obligations.
Nigeria's Existing Surveillance Architecture
Nigeria's surveillance system operates at multiple levels.
Healthcare facilities generate information.
Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers and other public-health personnel operate at local-government and state levels.
State-level structures feed information into the national system.
Laboratories provide another critical source of information, particularly for diseases requiring laboratory confirmation.
The NCDC's technical documents describe the surveillance flow from healthcare facilities through local and state structures to national authorities.
They also recognise private clinics and hospitals within the broader surveillance system.
The new pilot is therefore not introducing the concept of private-sector reporting from scratch.
Rather, it is testing a more automated and interoperable way of bringing information from selected private facilities into the existing digital architecture.
That could be significant because manual reporting can require healthcare workers to enter similar information more than once.
A provider may first document information in a patient's record and then separately prepare surveillance information for another reporting system.
Interoperability can potentially reduce such duplication by allowing relevant information to move between systems under controlled rules.
The extent to which that can be achieved will be one of the issues the pilot needs to demonstrate.
Lessons From Previous Digital Surveillance Work
Nigeria's experience with SORMAS goes back several years.
The NCDC began using the platform to strengthen digital disease surveillance, and it became part of the country's response to outbreaks including Lassa fever, meningitis and other infectious diseases.
During the COVID-19 response, SORMAS was used for case reporting, contact tracing and other surveillance functions.
The NCDC has previously described the platform as supporting real-time surveillance and outbreak response.
In one of its annual reports, the agency said SORMAS had been fully deployed for digital surveillance across Nigeria's 774 local government areas by the end of 2020.
More recently, NCDC reporting has pointed to continued expansion of digital surveillance capacity.
An NCDC report published in 2025 described the deployment of more than 5,700 SORMAS-enabled devices to health facilities and the training of more than 5,300 healthcare workers across 34 states, alongside broader IDSR capacity-building activities.
These investments provide an important foundation for the latest private-sector initiative.
But technology deployment alone does not guarantee complete surveillance.
A digital platform can only process information that reaches it.
That is one reason the latest partnership places so much emphasis on connecting private providers to the national system.
From Outbreak Detection to Public-Health Action
The ultimate value of surveillance data lies in what happens after information is received.
If health authorities detect an increase in cases of a particular disease, they may need to investigate the source, verify cases, deploy surveillance officers, strengthen laboratory testing, issue public-health advice, mobilise medicines or supplies, conduct vaccination activities where appropriate, or introduce other interventions.
The exact response depends on the disease and the nature of the event.
A surveillance platform does not itself contain an outbreak.
Rather, it provides information that can support the decisions of public-health authorities.
That distinction is important in assessing the new pilot.
The agreement does not mean Nigeria has eliminated surveillance gaps or that automated reporting will automatically prevent outbreaks.
It is an effort to improve the information available to the national system.
The quality of the result will depend on participation, data accuracy, interoperability, connectivity, staff training, system maintenance and the ability of authorities to interpret and act on information.
The Private Provider's Perspective
For private healthcare providers, the success of the pilot will depend partly on whether reporting becomes easier rather than more burdensome.
HFN's participation reflects the role of private-sector providers in designing the pilot.
According to the organisations involved, the earlier survey allowed private facilities to describe some of the difficulties associated with surveillance reporting.
The new phase is intended to use those lessons in developing practical solutions.
That approach is important because health facilities differ considerably.
A large private hospital in Lagos or Abuja may have electronic medical records, laboratory information systems and dedicated information-technology personnel.
A smaller clinic may have fewer digital resources and a different workflow.
A pharmacy or patent medicine outlet may have another type of record-keeping system altogether.
Any attempt to broaden digital surveillance therefore has to account for differences in infrastructure, staffing and technical capacity.
A pilot can help identify those differences before any larger-scale expansion is attempted.
Connectivity and Infrastructure
Digital surveillance also depends on the basic infrastructure supporting digital healthcare.
Internet connectivity, reliable electricity, suitable devices, technical support and trained personnel all influence how well digital reporting works.
A system can be well designed but still struggle if a facility has unreliable connectivity or insufficient equipment.
That is another reason the partners' decision to test the system through a pilot is significant.
The exercise can reveal practical obstacles that may not be obvious in a technical design document.
It can also show whether automated reporting actually reduces work for healthcare providers or creates additional tasks.
If successful, lessons from the pilot could inform decisions about broader integration.
If problems emerge, the pilot can provide evidence about what needs to be changed before expansion.
Nigeria's Wider Digital Health Push
The surveillance partnership comes at a time when Nigeria is pursuing broader digital transformation across the health sector.
The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said in September that the Federal Government was establishing a National Health Technology and Data Analytics Office to improve coordination, standardisation and integration of health technology and data systems.
The ministry said the new office was intended to provide a coordination mechanism for accelerating digital transformation while complementing the responsibilities of existing departments, agencies, programmes and initiatives.
The development of digital surveillance therefore sits within a larger effort to make health information more useful for planning and service delivery.
Disease surveillance is one part of that broader ecosystem.
Other components include electronic health records, laboratory systems, health insurance information, public-health reporting, health research and data analytics.
The challenge is ensuring that these systems can work together without compromising privacy or creating unnecessary duplication.
Why Timing Matters
The latest agreement comes as Nigeria continues to manage a range of infectious and non-communicable health challenges.
The NCDC maintains surveillance for diseases including Lassa fever, diphtheria, meningitis and other conditions of public-health importance.
The agency's current guidance includes disease-specific preparedness and response materials, surveillance guidelines and public-health advisories.
Recent public-health developments have also demonstrated the importance of timely information.
For example, the NCDC has continued to issue advisories concerning diseases requiring vigilance and has maintained surveillance and response structures across the country.
Better integration of private-sector information could potentially provide another stream of information for identifying disease patterns.
However, the extent of that contribution will only become clearer as the pilot is implemented.
What Happens Next
Under the cooperation agreement, HFN will help engage private healthcare providers and relevant technology partners.
The federation will work with NCDC in selecting and engaging pilot facilities and will co-lead the design and implementation of the pilot.
It will also document the perspectives of private-sector providers and lessons learned during implementation.
PharmAccess will provide technical assistance on interoperability, digital standards and system architecture, as well as support for knowledge transfer and documentation.
NCDC will provide the national surveillance framework and work with the partners on integration into SORMAS.
The participating organisations will therefore have to address several practical questions.
Which facilities should participate?
What information should be transmitted automatically?
How should the information be validated?
How quickly should reports reach the surveillance system?
How should errors be corrected?
What technical standards should different provider systems follow?
How should access be controlled?
How should the system operate when connectivity fails?
And what evidence will determine whether the pilot should be expanded?
Those questions are likely to be central to the implementation phase.
A Test of Public-Private Health Collaboration
The agreement also illustrates a broader shift in the way health security is being approached.
Disease surveillance has traditionally been associated strongly with government public-health agencies.
But healthcare delivery in Nigeria involves government and private providers operating alongside one another.
Information generated in one part of the system can therefore be relevant to the other.
The NCDC has explicitly acknowledged that private facilities hold a significant amount of health information.
Idris said stronger engagement with the private sector was necessary to build a surveillance system that better reflects the reality of the entire health system.
For HFN and PharmAccess, the pilot provides an opportunity to test whether that principle can be translated into practical digital infrastructure.
The outcome will depend not only on the technology but also on cooperation among providers, public-health authorities and technology partners.
Potential Benefits for Disease Intelligence
If the pilot works as intended, several potential benefits could follow.
The first is improved timeliness.
Automated transmission can reduce the delay associated with manually transferring information from one system to another.
The second is completeness.
If more private facilities consistently contribute relevant information, national surveillance could have a broader view of disease activity.
The third is reduced duplication.
Where systems are properly integrated, healthcare workers may not need to repeatedly enter the same information.
The fourth is improved analysis.
More timely and structured information can provide public-health officials with a stronger basis for examining disease patterns.
The fifth is potentially faster coordination.
When reliable information is available sooner, health authorities can begin investigation and response processes earlier where necessary.
These are potential benefits rather than results already demonstrated by the new pilot.
The purpose of the pilot is precisely to determine how well the proposed approach works in practice.
The Importance of Data Quality
More data does not automatically mean better surveillance.
If information is incomplete, inaccurate, duplicated or incorrectly classified, increasing the volume of reports can make analysis more difficult.
That is why the partners have emphasised data quality, completeness and timeliness.
Healthcare workers need clear reporting definitions.
Systems need validation rules.
Laboratory results need to be appropriately linked where relevant.
Duplicate records need to be identified.
And information needs to reach the correct surveillance authorities.
The NCDC's existing IDSR architecture provides guidelines and reporting structures intended to standardise disease surveillance across the country.
The new pilot will need to operate consistently with that broader system.
Protecting Public Trust
Public trust is another important consideration.
People seeking care at private hospitals and clinics expect their medical information to be handled responsibly.
Digital integration must therefore be accompanied by clear rules governing the information being shared and the purposes for which it can be used.
The partners' commitment to data security, confidentiality and appropriate use is consequently a central part of the agreement rather than a secondary issue.
The long-term sustainability of digital health systems depends partly on confidence among healthcare providers and patients.
If providers understand why information is required and how it will be protected, participation can be easier to sustain.
If reporting systems become burdensome or poorly explained, participation may become inconsistent.
The pilot provides an opportunity to test not only the technical architecture but also the governance arrangements surrounding it.
A Broader View of Health Security
Health security extends beyond responding after an outbreak has become obvious.
It includes the ability to detect unusual events, gather reliable information, investigate signals and coordinate appropriate action.
That requires functioning surveillance systems.
The NCDC describes its mission in terms of evidence-based prevention, integrated disease surveillance and response and a One Health approach.
The new partnership fits into that mission by attempting to connect another part of the healthcare system to national surveillance.
It does not replace laboratories, epidemiologists, clinicians, public-health officers or emergency-response teams.
Instead, the objective is to improve the flow of information on which those professionals depend.
What the Pilot Could Mean for Nigeria's Health System
The immediate development is a memorandum and pilot, not a completed nationwide transformation.
Its significance will therefore be measured over time.
If the pilot demonstrates that private healthcare information can be transferred securely, accurately and efficiently into SORMAS while reducing reporting burdens, it could provide evidence for broader adoption.
If technical or operational difficulties emerge, those findings could be equally useful by showing where the system needs redesign or additional investment.
The initiative also places Nigeria's digital-health ambitions in practical terms.
Digital transformation is not simply about purchasing software or computers.
It involves connecting institutions, standardising information, training people, establishing governance arrangements and maintaining systems over time.
The new NCDC-HFN-PharmAccess cooperation brings those issues together around a specific public-health objective.
Looking Ahead
The next phase will be implementation.
NCDC, HFN and PharmAccess will need to identify participating facilities, establish technical connections, test reporting workflows and monitor the quality of information entering the surveillance system.
The partners will also need to document lessons from the exercise.
Those lessons could address technology, staff training, workflow design, data protection, connectivity, provider participation and the practical value of automated reporting.
For Nigeria's public-health system, the central objective is straightforward: to obtain a clearer and more timely picture of disease events wherever Nigerians seek healthcare.
For the private sector, the challenge is to contribute useful information without imposing unnecessary administrative demands on providers.
For the technology partners, the task is to make different systems communicate reliably while preserving security and confidentiality.
And for public-health authorities, the ultimate test is whether better information translates into better surveillance and more effective response.
The September 30 agreement marks the beginning of that test.
Nigeria already has a national digital surveillance foundation through IDSR and SORMAS. The new pilot seeks to strengthen that foundation by bringing selected private-sector providers more closely into the digital reporting chain.
Whether the approach can be expanded successfully will depend on what the pilot demonstrates.
For now, the development represents another step in Nigeria's effort to build a surveillance system that reflects the country's entire healthcare landscape — public and private — and uses digital information to support earlier detection, stronger health intelligence and coordinated public-health action.
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