Deploying an ICT Based National Health Sector Strategy For Attaining the Millennium Development Goals:Nigeria's Prospects, Challenges And Millestones

摘要

Perhaps the marginal improvement in the health care and services delivery in Nigeria was recently indicated when the World Health Organization stated that the country's life expectancy has moved from 47 to 49 years. There is no doubt that a lot more improvement can be a-chieved if all the resources available to the nation are properly harnessed and deployed. An important area of such resources that waits to be fully tapped into in Nigeria is the use of ICT in the administration and delivery of health care services. In a recent study on the use of ICT in the development oi the health sector in Nigeria which was contained in a project carried out by the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in collaboration with the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) as part of the African Information Society Initiative (AISI)initiated by UNECA on the use of ICT for development in Nigeria, possibilities for taking the available advantages in the use of ICT for development in the health sector were identified and investigated. This paper presents the findings and the recommendations in ICT for the health sector development in Nigeria and how these can contribute to Nigeria's attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The paper compares the findings of the Nigerian project with similar works in other developing countries in Africa and beyond. The paper identifies the perceivable achievements of Nigeria in the use of ICT in the health sector so far. It also attempts to identify the challenges and the prospects of deploying ICT for the development of the country's health sector.