Mirian Gom 
ABUJA, Nigeria – The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has adopted Health Technology Assessment (HTA) to guide healthcare spending and help direct limited resources towards interventions that provide greater value to Nigerians.
The NHIA Director-General, Dr Kelechi Ohiri, disclosed this on Wednesday during the inauguration of the HTA Steering Committee and official flag-off of HTA in Nigeria.
The event was officially flagged off by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate.
In a presentation titled “Progress of Health Technology Assessment Institutionalisation in Nigeria,” Ohiri said institutionalising HTA would strengthen evidence-based decisions on healthcare coverage, reimbursement, pricing and resource allocation as Nigeria works towards Universal Health Coverage.
According to the presentation, “HTA provides the evidence-based methodology to ensure those resources are spent efficiently and equitably.”
Ohiri said HTA was not being developed as a standalone technical programme but as part of broader reforms to strengthen the NHIA’s strategic purchasing function.
The presentation stated: “Strategic purchasing requires deliberate decisions about what healthcare to purchase, for whom, from whom, at what price and on the basis of what evidence.”
Ohiri said such evidence was becoming increasingly important as health insurance coverage expanded and the range and cost of health technologies increased.
“HTA provides a systematic and multidisciplinary approach to assessing the clinical, economic and wider value of health technologies,” he said.
The Authority began strengthening its HTA capacity under its strategic purchasing reforms, establishing a Strategic Purchasing Department and a dedicated HTA Division in 2025.
“This is an important component of institutionalisation because HTA should not rely solely on evidence and preferences generated in other settings when locally relevant evidence can be developed,” the presentation stated.
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Oluwatobi Adu 
Korede Abdullah 