Nigeria

  • In 2014, Nigeria introduced Community Based Health Insurance (CBHI) to provide healthcare coverage for the most vulnerable groups and is currently working on developing their local capacity of HTA assessment and utilisation of cost-effectiveness evidence. iDSI’s main engagement with Nigerian partners began during the COVID-19 pandemic with a HTA assessment of COVID-19 vaccines designed to help inform important policymaking questions.

Our Impact

Key findings from the COVID-19 vaccine HTA assessment in Nigeria were disseminated at several large events reaching over 450 Nigerian policymakers.

iDSI technical support improved HTA technical capacities in Nigeria and helped increased broader awareness of HTA.

Understanding the cost-effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccination in Nigeria

 In 2021, the University of Nigeria Nsukka, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, CGD, and the Africa Centres for Disease Control collaborated to support key national and regional stakeholders in evaluating the cost-effectiveness of Nigeria’s COVID-19 vaccine strategies using a HTA framework. The aim was to provide high quality evidence on COVID-19 vaccine cost-effectiveness to inform health policy decisions. This analysis showed that COVID-19 vaccines—especially the viral vector vaccines—have significant benefits, and represent cost-effective choices from a Nigerian health sector perspective. However, based on the current evidence, it is important that vaccines do not exceed $6 dollars per dose. Policymakers in Nigeria should prioritise lower-cost doses and, where possible, negotiate with pharmaceutical companies to secure affordable prices. The results also broadly confirmed the age group prioritisation strategy of the Nigerian government, which focused on a 50+ cohort during phase 2 of the rollout, and did not find much difference in terms of cost-effectiveness between different vaccine delivery strategies (campaign, targeted campaign, health facility). iDSI presented the COVID-19 vaccine HTA results to over 450 Nigerian policymakers and practitioners at the national and sub-national level at several meetings including:

  • The 38th Annual General Meeting and scientific conference of the Association of Public Health Physicians in Illorin, Nigeria
  • Nigeria COVID-19 Research Coalition conference 2022
  • 45th Annual General and Scientific Conference of the West African College of Physicians, Nigerian Chapter, Enugu.

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