At the WHX Lagos 2026, Dr. Olajide Idris, Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), delivered a blunt keynote to investors and hospital leaders: Africa’s hospitals are failing patients on execution, not ambition.
Speaking at ABCHealth’s Hospital Investment & Buyer Leadership Forum, DG NCDC said: “For the patient, transformation means being diagnosed earlier, treated faster, and supported by a health system with the medicines, supplies, information, referral pathways, and workforce required to respond effectively.”
The DG NCDC, Idris laid out five disciplined shifts for West Africa. First, move “from infrastructure visibility to functional infrastructure.” New buildings and MRI machines mean little without maintenance, stock, and staff. “A hospital investment plan must ultimately be a service delivery plan, connecting infrastructure to staffing, maintenance, commodities, financing, governance, data, and measurable results,” he told the crowded room at the venue, Landmark Event Centre, Oniru, Lagos.
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Secondly, kill fragmented tech buying. “The issue, therefore, is no longer whether hospitals should adopt technology, but whether the technology they adopt is interoperable, secure, usable, maintainable, appropriate to context, and aligned with national systems.” Without integration, he warned, surveillance platforms for TB, AMR, and other diseases remain isolated, causing inefficiency and wasted data. The fix requires regulation and collaboration.
DG NCDC, Idris also stressed that: “governance in supporting technology integration” must deliver basics first: power, utilities, and a conducive environment. Panelists agreed competent users are the missing link – tech only works through “competent users who understand how to operate and maintain the technology.”
Thirdly, Idris said: Embrace buyer leadership. “Africa cannot afford a marketplace in which hospitals simply receive whatever products are offered to them. We need a stronger marketplace,” Idris urging hospitals to pool demand and set standards.
Fourthly, demand partnership discipline with “clear roles, alignment with national and institutional priorities, shared responsibility, transparent data, and measurable outputs.” Fifth, shift from financing activity to “investable transformation.” He urged investors to “treat health as a viable asset class that yields both financial and social returns,” and tap pensions, SWFs, and insurers.
Idris closed with urgency on workforce and medical tourism: “Technology only delivers its value through people, but it cannot substitute for competent, motivated, protected, and accountable health workers.” For Nigeria to end billions lost to medical tourism, he said governance must create the environment and systems must integrate. “The measure is better care. The legacy must be a stronger, safer, and more resilient health system for our people.”
WHX Lagos Panel Maps Nigeria’s Path to Affordable, Quality Care during the Day 2 thematic Panel session 1 at WHX Lagos 2026 brought Nigeria’s lab and hospital leaders together with one mandate: ‘stop talking vision, start executing systems’. Panelists spent 250 words of airtime on what actually makes private care sustainable.
The conversation opened with implementation. Synlab Nigeria CEO Kenneth Okolie, outlined collaborations with King’s College Hospital London and Christie Foundation Manchester, adapting NHS board assurance and clinical governance frameworks for African hospitals. He introduced “learning health systems” where patient data moves instantly from bedside to assessment and research, enabling real-time trend spotting and global insights. The catch: models only scale with partnerships and diligent execution.
Affordability vs quality was the tension. Iwosan Healthcare, Co-founder/CEO, Fola Laoye, noted the CFO’s challenge in monetizing JCI accreditation when traditional insurance offers few incentives for high standards. Panelists agreed Nigeria must re-engineer payment models. Solutions on the table: bundles for predictable, profitable conditions; capitation; HMO partnerships; and employer-led insurance for the middle class and informal sector. With currency devaluation eroding margins, public-private partnerships were framed as non-negotiable.
Cost efficiency came next. Cerba Lancet CEO, Dr. Olayemi Dawodu, pushed telemedicine and hub-and-spoke models that link spoke centers to tertiary hubs, cutting average length of stay. Backward integration into high-volume, high-margin services like radiology and pharmacy, plus AI adoption, were pitched as margin protection -but only with a qualified workforce.
The panel closed on people and discipline. Healthcare Fusion Lead, Dr. Sade Ayo-Adebanjo stressed sustainable solutions must be built around people, with technology as an enabler and workforce involved in design. DrugStoc CEO Dr. Chibuzo Opara declared the future is hybrid care, blending virtual and physical settings. Laoye’s final note: execution discipline and continuous measurement of impact separate facilities that improve from those that stall.
The NIN, Borderless Labs, and Patient Power: WHX Lagos Charts Africa’s Diagnostic Future during the Day 2 thematic Panel session 2 at the Expo which turned the spotlight to data and diagnostics. Panelist agreed: Africa can’t scale advanced care until labs stop speaking different languages.
The session opened with interoperability, EightMedical Managing Director/CEO, Ibukun Tunde-Oni, warned that name variations misidentify patients, force manual data transfers, and produce incomparable results across facilities. His fix was an “inter-switch for healthcare” using universal identifiers like NIN to standardize lab items and streamline movement.
On data ownership, he argued patients must be the ultimate owners, granting time-bound authorization to doctors or hospitals before access is revoked. The infrastructure for sharing exists, he said, pointing to models already working globally.
Mcbiliealth Founder, Dr. Funmi Adewara,
shifted to investment. With NIN and patient integration, clinical pathology becomes bankable. But advanced diagnostics, molecular testing, and automation still hit infrastructure and cost walls. Adewara pressed the panel: what financing models can expand complex lab services without cutting quality? The question was pitched to ABCHealth’s Dr. Mories Atoki for her investor wish list.
AMCE CEO Brian Deaver introduced “borderless pathology” through Surveillance Set Africa, leveraging expertise and infrastructure across 14 countries. Technology now allows pathologists to collaborate and deliver second opinions without shipping physical samples. That model reduces turnaround time and cost while raising accuracy.
Funding closed the loop. Panelists outlined pension funds, PE, and government backing as viable sources, stressing economies of scale and rental/placement agreements for expensive equipment.
Evercare Chief Financial Officer, Olaide Olusoji-Oke, and EhaClinics Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ifunanya Ilodibe stressed precision testing and personalized medicine as the payoff for patients. The consensus: unique identifiers + patient-controlled data + smart financing = scalable, quality diagnostics for Nigeria and West Africa.
Also speaking on the WHX Lagos 2026, the Convener of the expo and CEO of ABCHealth, Dr. Mories Atoki says the company and the WHX identity remain committed to strengthening health systems across Africa through partnerships, investment, and innovation. “WHX positions healthcare not just as a clinical system, but as a connected experience ecosystem where innovation, investment, and collaboration converge,”
She define WHX Lagos’ purpose as a shift from trade show to strategic platform. “WHX Lagos is no longer just an exhibition. It is a strategic convening where ideas meet investment and policy meets delivery. We deliberately bridge the gap between decision-makers and implementers to co-create solutions that are practical and scalable,” she said.
According to Atoki, the forum is designed to move from talk to impact. “WHX Lagos translates dialogue into actionable pathways for investment, policy alignment, and system-level transformation. It is structured not only to showcase innovation, but to drive the conversations that accelerate healthcare delivery.”
Assessing this year’s edition, she noted: “WHX Lagos 2026 shows a maturing ecosystem focused on outcomes, not just dialogue.” Atoki said that transformation requires joint action: “The expo strengthens the urgency for execution, accountability, and sustained collaboration across Africa’s health sector.”
Atoki concluded as she recollect that WHX Lagos journey actually builds on a much longer legacy—what began as Medic West Africa and Medlab West Africa over 11 years of successful conveyings. Those platforms created the foundation for regional healthcare dialogue, and today they have evolved and been rebranded into WHX Lagos and WHX Labs Lagos to reflect a more global, future-facing health ecosystem focused on innovation, experience, and transformation.
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