By Chioma Obinna

To improve health communication and drive public engagement, experts have advocated the use of storytelling as a powerful tool to transform healthcare delivery and awareness in Nigeria.

The experts spoke at the 2025 Annual Conference of the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, PSHAN, hosted in collaboration with the World Health Expo (WHX Lagos), themed: “Creative Innovation for Sustainable Healthcare: Lessons from the Creative Industry.”

Speaking at the event, Dr. Chinonso Egemba, popularly known as Aproko Doctor, described storytelling as the most powerful tool in spreading health information effectively.

“When people see their lives reflected on screen or hear stories in their language, health information becomes meaningful, trusted, more personal, and easier to act upon,” Egemba said.

In her welcome address, Managing Director and CEO of PSHAN, Dr Tinuola Akinbolagbe, described the conference as a call to action for the private sector and innovators to collaborate as well as inject energy into the healthcare space by learning from the creative industry.

“We must stop seeing healthcare only as a system to fix. It is also a story to be told, a story that can inspire, mobilise and transform,” she said.

Akinbolagbe outlined four key objectives of the event: exploring the intersection between creativity and healthcare; encouraging private sector investment through models from the creative industry; identifying scalable strategies for sustainable healthcare financing; and fostering partnerships between healthcare stakeholders and creative leaders.

The Conference Chairperson and CEO of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, Ms Zouera Youssoufou, said the creative industry was chosen as the focus of the conference due to its proven impact and reach across diverse audiences.

The Director of Policy at PSHAN, Dr Anne Adah-Ogoh, highlighted the organisation’s flagship “Adopt-A-Health Facility Programme” (ADHFP), which seeks to transform one primary healthcare centre in each of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas into world-class facilities.

In his keynote address, the Founder and CEO of Sand Technologies, Mr Fred Swaniker, urged the government to invest in health workers and digital tools to curb the wave of medical brain drain known locally as Japa.

“We need to not only retain doctors but also equip them with technology that improves efficiency, especially in rural areas,” he said.

The Head of Corporate Communications at PSHAN, Mr Clifford Egbomeade, called for bold ideas and imagination to drive a new narrative in the health sector. “The future of healthcare won’t be inherited it has to be created,” he said.

During the panel session, stakeholders agreed that to shift health outcomes, storytelling must be combined with music, dance, data, and technology to reach underserved communities and change public perception.

The conference brought together government officials, donors, development partners, industry experts, and creatives committed to advancing sustainable healthcare solutions in Nigeria and across West Africa.