Financial inclusion lessons can fix Nigeria's health equity crisis, says ex-SFH COO
Olu Akanmu, former COO of Society for Family Health-Nigeria, argues at a June 11, 2026 Health-Tech event that Nigeria's financial inclusion progress offers a blueprint for fixing health equity. Formal financial inclusion grew from 36% in 2010 to 64% in 2023, while digital payment access more than doubled from 22% to 52% over the same period, per EFINA data. This progress mirrors stark health exclusion patterns: under-5 mortality is 102 per 1,000 live births, maternal mortality is 500 per 100,000, and Nigeria bears 27% of global malaria burden with 15% prevalence nationally.
The correlation is stark: financial exclusion exceeds 60% in Northwest and Northeast states, matches the highest health exclusion zones, disproportionately affects women and rural populations, and is fundamentally driven by poverty—just like health exclusion. Akanmu proposes ten lessons from financial inclusion success applicable to health systems, including adopting digital technology to crash transaction costs (like mobile banking replacing bank branches), creating progressive regulatory frameworks akin to CBN's fintech sandbox approach, building digital public infrastructure (like NIN/BVN for health), fostering interoperable health platforms, embracing platform thinking for bundled services, strengthening ecosystem partnerships, leveraging connected data for AI-driven solutions, and applying design thinking with patient co-creation.
Will Nigerian health regulators and innovators adopt financial inclusion's playbook—specifically implementing CBN-style regulatory sandboxes for health-tech, expanding NIN-based health IDs, and mandating interoperable health data standards—to finally close the stark equity gaps preventing health for all?