AI Can Help Bridge Nigeria’s Health Workforce Gap — AHFID

The founder and chief executive officer of the Africa Hub for Innovation & Development (AHFID), Dr Kunle Kakanfo, has said artificial intelligence (AI) could help Nigeria bridge gaps in its healthcare workforce and improve access to faster and more efficient health services.

Kakanfo, who spoke at a media chat ahead of the Artificial Intelligence in Health Summit 2026 scheduled for October 19 and 20 in Abuja, said AI could augment the country’s overstretched health workforce, particularly in areas such as tuberculosis screening, cervical cancer detection and clinical decision support.

He, however, stressed that AI should not be viewed as a replacement for healthcare professionals, saying human oversight would remain critical in the deployment of AI tools in healthcare.

According to him, AI-powered computer vision could assist in reading chest X-rays for tuberculosis screening and triaging, thereby helping to address shortages of radiographers and radiologists in the country.

“A tool that reads X-ray does not staff the hospital,” Kakanfo said, stressing that AI systems would still require healthcare professionals to interpret findings and make clinical decisions.

He said the technology could nevertheless make healthcare delivery more efficient and faster, while allowing doctors to devote more time to critical cases and expanding access to services.

Kakanfo said Nigeria’s healthcare system faced significant challenges, including health workforce shortages, tuberculosis burden and high out-of-pocket expenditure, making it necessary to explore technologies capable of improving health outcomes.

He said Nigeria still records an estimated 510,000 tuberculosis cases annually, making it the country with the highest TB burden in Africa, while more than 70 per cent of Nigerians continue to pay out of pocket for healthcare.

He said the summit would therefore focus on practical applications of AI that could address specific health challenges rather than discussions centred solely on the hype surrounding the technology.

According to him, Nigeria must also develop locally trained AI models using Nigerian and African health data instead of relying heavily on systems developed using foreign datasets.

He disclosed that AHFID had already commenced work in hospitals in the Federal Capital Territory to collect cough sounds for the development of models that could potentially assist in detecting tuberculosis.

He said similar approaches could be explored for detecting other conditions, including neonatal sepsis, noting that research has shown that sounds such as coughs and infant cries could potentially provide useful health information when analysed using AI.

Kakanfo said the availability of locally generated health data would enable Nigeria to develop AI models better suited to its population and healthcare needs.

He said the summit would also examine the safety, regulation, validation and procurement of AI tools, stressing that any technology deployed on Nigerian patients must undergo appropriate scrutiny before use.

“We need to come together as a people to build governance structures and frameworks around the use of artificial intelligence,” he said.

Kakanfo further disclosed that more than 30 AI innovations were submitted following a call for innovations, with about 12 to 15 selected to showcase their solutions at the summit.

He said the summit would bring together health practitioners, technology stakeholders, regulators, government agencies, innovators and development partners to develop practical pathways for responsible AI adoption in Nigeria’s health sector.

He said the summit would also address data sovereignty, federated learning, synthetic data, validation and procurement, particularly concerns around dependence on foreign-developed AI tools.

Kakanfo said the organisers wanted the meeting to go beyond speeches and generate concrete commitments that could contribute to a national roadmap for AI in health.

Also speaking, Senior Technical Adviser to the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Dr Abiola Oshunniyi, said Nigeria could not afford to wait until other countries had fully adopted AI before developing systems suited to its own healthcare needs.

Oshunniyi said AI could support disease outbreak prediction, medical countermeasure preparedness and other aspects of health security.

He said the summit would also explore how AI could be incorporated into existing digital health and e-health policy frameworks, noting that an e-health bill currently before the National Assembly provides an opportunity to strengthen the policy environment for AI in healthcare.

According to him, Nigeria also needs clear standards and pathways for approving and scaling locally developed health technology solutions.

He said solutions developed by Nigerian innovators should be capable of meeting international standards and being scaled within the country and exported to other African countries.

Oshunniyi stressed that the summit was intended to generate collaboration, resource mobilisation and policy action rather than merely create another platform for discussion.

On her part, Technology Law Counsel at AHFID/AI4SID and Coordinator of the AI in Health Summit, Liss Yori, stressed the need to put patients at the centre of AI deployment in healthcare.

Yori said the increasing use of AI in healthcare must be accompanied by strong safeguards to protect patients’ data, privacy and safety.

She said responsible and ethical deployment was necessary to prevent the development and use of AI health applications that could misrepresent patients or expose their personal information.

The Artificial Intelligence in Health Summit 2026 is expected to hold in Abuja on October 19–20, with government agencies, technology and health-sector stakeholders, development partners, innovators and civil society organisations expected to participate.

The summit is expected to produce recommendations towards a national roadmap and policy direction for the safe, responsible and effective use of AI in Nigeria’s health sector.