Plan International Nigeria, a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), supported the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) to review the National Health Management Information System (NHMIS).
Helen Idiong, the group’s Director, Programme Quality and Influencing, said during a five-day workshop in Abuja on Tuesday that the support was necessary to gather relevant data for indicators in the sector.
Idiong said the review meeting, spearheaded by the Federal Monistry of Health, would help to come to speed with what is happening globally.
She said that, there are a lot of changes, and they have new infections coming up and so it only makes sense for an organisation to keep reviewing its processes to be in tandem with what is available globally.
She commended Nigeria for making a lot of progress in the sector, while calling for more work in the area of data collection that would inform decision making.
Dr Chris Isokpunwa, the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, FMoH, added that the health sector needed the right indicator and this cannot be gotten without the right data to report accurately.
He urged participants to take the meeting as a matter of national assignment to address challenges in the sector.
On his part, Mr Adeola Jegede, the Head, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation at the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, said the meeting would ensure current tools were available on relevant data.
Jegede added that relevant data would provide holistic decisions in the health sector, noting that “there is a current drive by government to ensure improvements in the health indicators.