For years, Nigerian hospitals have run on paper. Patient folders get lost. Lab results are repeated. Doctors guess at history. On Wednesday, the Senate moved to end that era by passing for second reading a bill to create a legal backbone for e-health services nationwide. The ambition is clear: bring telemedicine, electronic records, and AI into Nigeria’s health system. But ambition without infrastructure, data protection, and accountability risks creating digital chaos instead of digital care. The question form Ekuson Nw’Ogbunka Our Managing Editor in Abuja is asking now is: Can the law fix a system that has struggled with the basics?
The bill was sponsored by Deputy Senate President, Senator Barau Jibrin.
Its title is long but direct: An Act to provide for a Comprehensive Legal and Regulatory Framework for the Development, Coordination and Integration of Electronic Health Services in Nigeria.
Senator Barau argued that the world has moved on. Nations, according to him are now using electronic medical records, telemedicine, artificial intelligence, mobile health apps, e-prescriptions, wearables, and integrated health information systems.
“Nigeria cannot afford to remain on the margins of this global transformation,” he said, noting that despite investments, the health system still faces enormous challenges. The most basic problem remains paper. Medical records are largely paper-based, leading to loss of patient information, duplication of tests, delayed treatment, and avoidable errors.
COVID-19 exposed the cost of this analog system. During the pandemic, telemedicine and remote consultations became lifelines. They maintained care while reducing physical contact. But Barau admitted a hard truth: adoption has been ad-hoc. Hospitals, private providers, and tech companies are already deploying digital solutions without a unifying law.
This is where the danger lies.
The absence of legislation has created fragmented implementation, inconsistent standards, and poor interoperability. It has also created a governance vacuum. Who is liable when an e-prescription is wrong? Who owns patient data collected by an app? What happens when systems don’t talk to each other?
The bill seeks to answer those questions. It aligns with the Federal Government’s digital transformation agenda and the National Digital Health Strategic Framework.
It also ties into the National Health Act, Universal Health Coverage, and the Nigeria Data Protection Act.
Internationally, it claims alignment with SDG 3 on Good Health and SDG 9 on Innovation.
On paper, this is the right direction.
Digital health can expand access, especially in rural areas where specialists are scarce. It can reduce fraud and improve planning through real-time data.
But laws do not install servers.
Nigeria’s hospitals still struggle with power, internet connectivity, and basic equipment. An EMR system is useless without electricity and trained staff.
There is also the trust problem.
Nigerians are wary of how their data is used. Without strong enforcement of the Data Protection Act, an e-health database could become a target for breaches and misuse.
The bill must therefore do more than authorize technology. It must mandate cybersecurity standards, patient consent protocols, and penalties for data abuse.
Another critical gap is coordination.
Health is on the Concurrent List. States run most hospitals. A federal framework that ignores state capacity will produce islands of digitization in a sea of paper.
Interoperability is not just technical. It is political. The law must force federal, state, and private facilities to use common standards, or we will end up with 36 incompatible systems.
Funding is the elephant in the room.
Who pays for the infrastructure, training, and maintenance? If the burden falls on already underfunded public hospitals, the law will be beautiful but empty.
The Senate has now referred the bill to its Committee on Health for further inputs, with a four-week deadline. That committee’s work will determine if this becomes transformative or symbolic.
Ultimately, the e-health bill is a test of sequencing. You cannot digitize services if you haven’t digitized governance: procurement, staffing, power, and accountability.
If done right, this could be the foundation for a modern health system. If done wrong, it will be another law that exists only in the Gazette while patients continue to carry their folders from one clinic to another. The Senate has set the machinery in motion. Now Nigeria must decide if it is ready to power it.
