The National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), in collaboration with Sproxil Nigeria Limited, is leading efforts to close persistent gaps in malaria data generated by private hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other healthcare providers.
The partnership was reinforced during a two-day Strategic Alignment Meeting held in Lagos from August 6 to 7. The meeting brought together officials from the Federal Ministry of Health, malaria researchers, development partners, the World Health Organisation, PATH and digital-health experts to examine how technology could improve malaria testing, reporting and public-health communication.
At the centre of the discussions was a longstanding challenge facing malaria surveillance in Nigeria: a significant proportion of diagnosis and treatment takes place outside government-owned health facilities.
While data routinely generated by public health facilities feed into national surveillance and planning systems, information from private-sector providers is not captured as comprehensively. This leaves health authorities without a complete picture of malaria trends across the country.
“Especially in the private sector, we are missing a lot of data,” Head of Case Management at the National Malaria Elimination Programme, Dr Shekarau Emmanuel, said. “Even in reporting, we need accuracy.”
The programme is therefore looking at digital solutions that can make malaria information more timely, accurate and useful for decision-making as the country intensifies efforts to reduce the disease burden.
Digital Platform Targets Private-Sector Data
At the meeting, Sproxil presented the Sproxil Nigeria Malaria Survey, a nationwide digital platform designed to collect structured malaria data from private healthcare providers across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The proposed platform is expected to complement existing government surveillance systems rather than replace them. By providing an additional stream of routine data, the system could help health authorities identify emerging malaria patterns and improve planning and allocation of resources.
Participants, however, subjected the proposed methodology to detailed review, examining issues including sampling methods, statistical weighting, governance and possible interoperability with the District Health Information System, known as DHIS2.
The focus on methodology underscores the need for data collected through a private-sector platform to meet the quality and reliability standards required for public-health decisions.
Beyond data collection, the meeting also considered Sproxil’s artificial intelligence-assisted technology for interpreting malaria rapid diagnostic tests.
The system uses image analysis to interpret rapid diagnostic test results and digitally capture the outcome. If properly validated and integrated, the technology could reduce the time between testing and reporting while providing health authorities with faster access to information on malaria positivity rates.
Such real-time or near-real-time information could help officials detect changes in malaria transmission and respond more quickly to areas experiencing increased disease activity.
However, stakeholders acknowledged that the technology would need to undergo appropriate validation, regulatory review and quality-assurance processes before it could become part of routine government health services.
NMEP Sees Potential in Artificial Intelligence
Emmanuel said the technology demonstrated during the meeting offered an opportunity for the malaria programme to address some of its longstanding challenges.
“The use of AI has been demonstrated in this meeting with Sproxil, using their innovation and technical expertise in providing artificial intelligence intervention in handling malaria issues in the country,” he said. “It’s really looking promising and it’s something that the programme must really leverage to deploy several interventions going forward.”
Participants also explored ways of making AI-powered health technologies accessible to ordinary Nigerians without requiring specialised technical knowledge.
Sproxil demonstrated AISHA, its conversational artificial-intelligence platform deployed through WhatsApp. The system is designed to provide health information and decision support through a platform already familiar to millions of Nigerians.
The approach is relatively straightforward for users: they can interact with the service through WhatsApp, ask health-related questions and receive information or guidance from the AI system.
Sproxil Pushes WhatsApp-Based Testing
Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Sproxil, Dr Ashifi Gogo, said the company was exploring how artificial intelligence could help transform malaria test results into useful information for policymakers and health authorities.
“Today, Sproxil and the National Malaria Elimination Programme got together to see how the use of artificial intelligence, AI, can help Nigeria become malaria-free,” Gogo said.
According to him, the process should begin with encouraging people to test for malaria instead of assuming that symptoms automatically indicate the disease.
Once a test has been conducted, Sproxil’s technology is designed to allow users to capture the result with a smartphone camera and send the image through WhatsApp for AI-assisted interpretation.
Gogo said the data generated from such tests could help authorities identify locations recording higher or lower levels of malaria and use the information to guide the distribution of essential interventions.
“If the test results are showing where malaria-positive is a lot or a little in Nigeria, based on that data, you can send maybe more nets here, more medicines there,” he said.
He argued that public-health planning should be based on actual testing and evidence rather than assumptions about where malaria is most prevalent.
“AI would really help with this because to get the test results into the AI system, you just have to snap a picture and send it on WhatsApp to Sproxil. Everybody can snap a picture and use WhatsApp,” he said.
Sproxil has also developed technology that allows consumers and other stakeholders to verify medicines and identify products whose authenticity or quality may require further investigation, adding another dimension to its broader digital-health activities.
Data Accuracy Remains a Priority
Emmanuel reiterated that improving access to private-sector malaria data would be critical to strengthening national surveillance.
“Especially in the private sector, we are missing a lot of data,” Emmanuel said. “But again, even in reporting, we need accuracy.”
He said the AI-assisted technology demonstrated by Sproxil could potentially help improve the accuracy of malaria testing and reporting while supporting the wider digitisation of malaria control interventions.
For the malaria programme, the objective is not simply to collect more data but to ensure that the information generated is reliable enough to guide decisions on medicines, insecticide-treated nets, testing services and other interventions.
Innovation Seen as Key to Malaria Elimination
The National Coordinator of the National Malaria Elimination Programme, Dr Nnenna Ogbulafor, said innovation would be increasingly important if Nigeria and other malaria-endemic countries were to meet global elimination targets.
“Artificial Intelligence offers us an opportunity to improve how we collect data, monitor interventions and strengthen programme implementation,” she said. “Technology enables us to work smarter and respond faster, making it a critical part of the future of malaria control in Nigeria.”
Nigeria has made progress in reducing malaria prevalence over the past decade through sustained investments in prevention, diagnosis and treatment.
Citing findings from the 2025 Malaria Indicator Survey, Ogbulafor said national malaria prevalence had fallen to about 15 per cent, describing the decline as an indication of the impact of continued malaria-control efforts.
However, the push for better surveillance suggests that officials are seeking to build on those gains by improving the quality and speed of information available to decision-makers.
If successfully validated and deployed, AI-driven testing and reporting tools could provide the National Malaria Elimination Programme with a broader and more timely view of malaria activity, particularly in the private sector, while helping to direct limited resources to communities where they are most needed.