A strong consensus emerged among healthcare leaders, investors, policymakers and technology innovators at the 2026 World Health Expo (WHX) Lagos that meaningful transformation of Nigeria’s healthcare sector will require far more than ambitious policies and technological breakthroughs.
Participants at the three-day event, held from June 2 to 4 at the Landmark Centre in Lagos, urged the Federal Government to deepen collaboration with private sector players, strengthen healthcare financing systems, expand digital infrastructure and create an enabling environment that allows innovation to flourish while ensuring affordable healthcare access for millions of Nigerians.
Held under the theme, “Transforming Healthcare Delivery Through Collaborative Innovation: Leveraging Partnership, Investment and Technology to Enhance Clinical Outcomes and Healthcare Efficiency,” the gathering brought together healthcare professionals, diagnostic companies, researchers, investors, development agencies, technology providers and government representatives from across Africa and beyond.
Throughout the conference, one message repeatedly surfaced: innovation may be reshaping global healthcare, but without effective financing, strategic partnerships and implementation frameworks, many of these advances will remain beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.
Beyond Innovation: The Need for Sustainable Healthcare Systems
As discussions progressed across keynote sessions, panel conversations and exhibitions, stakeholders agreed that Africa’s healthcare future will ultimately depend on its ability to finance, scale and deliver innovations effectively.
Although cutting-edge diagnostic technologies, digital health solutions and emerging medical innovations dominated many of the presentations, experts warned that technology alone cannot solve the continent’s healthcare challenges.
Instead, they argued that governments, research institutions, healthcare providers, investors and private sector organisations must work together to ensure that modern healthcare solutions become accessible, affordable and equitable.
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| Professor Oluyemi Akinloye, Director of the Centre for Genomics of Non-Communicable Diseases and Personalised Healthcare at the University of Lagos. |
According to Akinloye, healthcare transformation requires a balanced combination of scientific progress, sustainable investment and stakeholder collaboration.
“When you look at healthcare in Nigeria, Africa and indeed globally, what we need is accessible quality healthcare that serves everyone — the rich, the poor and the average citizen,” he said.
He noted that healthcare diagnostics is undergoing a significant global transformation, with technologies once confined to research laboratories increasingly becoming practical tools for disease detection, treatment and prevention.
However, he stressed that the real challenge lies in ensuring that these innovations move beyond research institutions and become available to everyday citizens.
“We need huge global investments and a lot of innovations that are already leaving the research space to become services available for everybody,” he noted.
Public-Private Partnerships Seen as Key to Future Growth
Akinloye maintained that governments can no longer single-handedly drive healthcare transformation, particularly in developing economies where resources are limited and competing priorities are numerous.
“It is not possible, except we want to deceive ourselves, that governments will do everything,” he said.
“Governments have many responsibilities and competing priorities. The private sector must play a significant role — not only in making profits, but also in creating meaningful social impact.”
His remarks reflected a growing recognition that healthcare delivery, particularly in diagnostics, requires substantial investments in infrastructure, technology deployment, workforce development and operational systems.
Drawing from international examples, Akinloye highlighted successful public-private partnership models implemented within the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), as well as diagnostics-focused collaborations across Ethiopia, Ghana and Kenya.
He also referenced global alliances involving governments, development agencies and diagnostic manufacturers that have helped improve responses to diseases such as tuberculosis and COVID-19.
According to him, these examples demonstrate that sustainable healthcare systems are built through cooperation rather than isolated interventions.
Human Capital Development Remains Critical
Beyond infrastructure and financing, experts emphasised the need to invest heavily in healthcare professionals who will operate increasingly sophisticated diagnostic technologies.
Akinloye noted that advances in diagnostics have moved far beyond traditional observation and microscopy into highly advanced technology-driven systems.
“Diagnostics has evolved from mere observation and microscopic techniques to highly sophisticated innovations backed by technology,” he explained.
“There must be deliberate development of human resources supported by substantial funding.”
He warned that healthcare inequality could widen if African countries fail to build the capacity needed to adopt and utilise emerging healthcare innovations effectively.
“If other countries are treating difficult diseases through technology and innovation, we should not be left behind because our systems are not organised or synchronised,” he said.
Out-of-Pocket Spending Continues to Limit Access
While discussions focused heavily on innovation, healthcare financing emerged as perhaps the most pressing concern throughout the event.
Chief Executive Officer of Synlab Nigeria, Kenneth Okolie, identified healthcare financing as one of the biggest obstacles preventing wider access to quality diagnostics and healthcare services.
According to him, the challenge is not a lack of demand for healthcare but rather the heavy dependence on out-of-pocket payments.
“There is clearly no problem with demand,” he said. “The challenge is that healthcare is mostly out-of-pocket in Nigeria.”
For many Nigerians, healthcare spending often competes with other immediate necessities such as food, rent, transportation and education.
As a result, many individuals delay or completely avoid seeking medical attention until health conditions become severe.
“Before the average individual spends on healthcare, he first asks himself: Have I eaten? Have I paid my rent? Have I done this? Have I done that?” Okolie observed.
He explained that this reality creates a cycle that negatively affects both patients and healthcare providers.
When patients cannot afford care, healthcare utilisation declines despite significant health needs. Providers, in turn, struggle to expand services, invest in infrastructure and reach underserved populations.
To address this challenge, Okolie advocated stronger health insurance systems and innovative financing mechanisms capable of reducing direct financial burdens on patients.
“At the end of the day, we need to find ways that tests can be paid for so that people can access care without having to think about where the money is going to come from,” he said.
Technology must match system readiness
In his contribution, Manason Garkuwa Rubainu, Medical Laboratory Director of Peak Medical Laboratories, Abuja, urged caution against the rapid adoption of advanced technologies in healthcare settings without first ensuring that basic infrastructure is in place to support them.
He warned that even the most sophisticated systems can fail to deliver meaningful impact if introduced into environments that are not adequately prepared.
“Some technologies are important, but if the environment is not ready, resources can be wasted,” he warned.
Rubainu stressed that healthcare reform cannot succeed on technology alone, arguing that governance quality plays an equally decisive role. According to him, transparency, accountability and public confidence are essential if reforms are to achieve long-term success.
He pointed to healthcare financing systems and insurance schemes as areas where public participation is heavily influenced by trust in governance structures. Where systems are transparent and clearly service-oriented, he suggested, citizens are more likely to support and engage with them.
He reinforced this philosophy with a simple guiding principle: “Everything should be humanity first, not money,” he said.
Diagnostics must be accessible, sustainable and future-ready
A major theme at WHX Lagos 2026 was the accelerating role of healthcare data, digital health technologies, and personalised medicine in reshaping modern diagnostics and patient care.
Speaking on emerging trends in healthcare delivery, Senior Product Manager at Tosoh Bioscience Europe, Dimitrios Zayanzoudis, highlighted the need to build sustainable diagnostic systems while simultaneously strengthening the digital infrastructure that supports health data management.
He argued that diagnostic outputs should not be treated as isolated figures, but as part of a continuous and evolving patient-care journey that informs better clinical decisions over time.
“In vitro diagnostics are not just one number,” he said. “Sometimes it is very important to know what the difference is between today’s result and tomorrow’s result.”
According to him, longitudinal patient data will become increasingly critical as healthcare systems transition toward precision medicine—an approach where treatment is tailored to an individual’s medical history, biological makeup and diagnostic patterns over time.
Zayanzoudis further called for a shift in how healthcare investments are designed and evaluated, insisting that sustainability must guide both public sector policy and private sector engagement in the health space. He emphasized that progress in healthcare cannot be achieved in silos, but requires sustained cooperation between governments, healthcare institutions and industry players.
“We need a cost-effective and sustainable way to move forward and bring diagnostics to everybody,” he said.
He also underscored the growing importance of data-driven healthcare systems, noting that medical records and personalised diagnostics are becoming central to improving treatment outcomes and disease management.
Beyond the procurement of equipment, he argued that healthcare systems must focus on building durable and scalable infrastructure capable of supporting continuous patient care, ensuring that diagnostic services remain reliable, accessible and functional over the long term.
For him, innovation only delivers real value when it is embedded in systems that can sustain it, expand its reach, and make it accessible to all segments of society.
Collaboration is the foundation of universal health coverage
Also speaking, Charles Sokei, Commercial Director for West Central and North Africa and Turkey at Erba Mannheim, emphasized that collaboration—not competition—is the key to strengthening healthcare systems, particularly in the diagnostics sector.
He argued that universal health coverage cannot be achieved without strong diagnostic capacity, and that diagnostics themselves cannot function effectively without sustained partnerships across the healthcare value chain.
“You cannot talk about universal health coverage without diagnostics. And you cannot talk about diagnostics without collaborative partnerships,” he said.
Sokei noted that progress is already being made through joint efforts involving manufacturers, regulators, and laboratory operators, particularly through industry associations and engagements with the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN), aimed at improving laboratory standards and capacity nationwide.
He also stressed that the sector is gradually shifting away from competitive silos toward shared responsibility and strategic cooperation.
“We are no longer competing; now it is time to collaborate. We must build strategic partnerships because no single organisation can do it alone,” he stated.
Looking ahead, Sokei outlined key priorities for the sector, including strengthening technical capacity, integrating laboratory services into broader health systems, expanding access to modern diagnostic technologies, and deepening institutional partnerships across both public and private healthcare structures.
Charles Sokei, Commercial Director, Africa, Latin America, Erba Diagnostics (left); Donald Ofili, Acting Register/CEO, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (second left); Roberto Taboada, General Manager, Anglo West Africa, Roche Diagnostics (third left); Henry Adioha, National Sales Lead, Laboria (third right); Njide Ndili, President, Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (second right), and Oluremi Akinloye, Director, Centre for Genomics of Non-Communicable Diseases and Personalised Healthcare, University of Lagos, during the WHX Lagos 2026, held at Landmark in Lagos, on Thursday.
A Call for Action Beyond the Conference Hall
Across exhibition halls, networking sessions and panel discussions, participants repeatedly acknowledged that the healthcare sector is no longer suffering from a shortage of innovation.
Many of the technologies required to improve disease detection, strengthen health systems and enhance patient outcomes already exist.
The challenge now is ensuring that these technologies reach patients in a way that is sustainable, affordable and equitable.
Stakeholders agreed that achieving this goal will require comprehensive policy reforms, increased infrastructure investment, workforce development, stronger insurance systems and deeper collaboration between public and private sector actors.
As WHX Lagos 2026 concluded, delegates left with a shared understanding that diagnostics will play an increasingly important role in the future of healthcare delivery.
Accurate and timely diagnosis remains central to disease prevention, treatment planning, public health surveillance and overall health system performance.
For participants, the expo served not only as a showcase of innovation but also as a platform for advancing practical solutions to long-standing healthcare challenges.
The overriding message was clear: the future of healthcare in Nigeria and across Africa will depend on how effectively governments, healthcare providers, investors, researchers and technology companies align their efforts around a common objective — making quality healthcare and diagnostics accessible to all, regardless of income, location or social status.
Ultimately, stakeholders agreed that the next phase of healthcare transformation will not be defined solely by breakthroughs in laboratories or boardroom strategies. It will be determined by the collective ability of institutions and industry leaders to ensure that innovation reaches the people whose lives depend on it.