By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA – Africa’s leading scientists, policymakers, and global health institutions convened in Abuja on Tuesday for a landmark summit aimed at transforming health data sharing across the continent.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), in collaboration with MRC Gambia at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and WANETAM, hosted the high-level workshop to drive the creation of a unified Pan-African health and clinical trials data platform.

The initiative comes amid growing concern over rising cases of tuberculosis (TB), particularly multi-drug resistant strains, across the continent, including Nigeria. Professor Assan Jaye of MRC Gambia and LSHTM, leader of the WANETAM consortium, emphasized that fragmented data systems have long impeded effective disease control.

“We are sitting on enormous volumes of high-quality data on TB, HIV, and malaria, but without a central repository, its full value is lost,” Jaye said. “Data is the new gold. If Africa does not own and control its data, it cannot fully harness it to save lives.”

The consortium, which includes 35 institutions such as University of Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello University, has already developed a West African Health Data Research Platform. The Abuja summit aims to scale this initiative into a continent-wide hub with governance frameworks regulating data access, sharing, and security.

Experts highlighted the growing role of artificial intelligence, citing a Nigerian-led project that applies AI to interpret chest X-rays for faster TB diagnosis. However, Jaye warned that over-reliance on foreign funding threatens sustainability, urging African governments to increase investment in research.

Echoing the urgency, Professor Dorothy Yeboah-Manu, Director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Ghana, stressed that weak cross-border data sharing undermines disease control. “Diseases do not respect borders. Data from Nigeria today can save lives in Ghana tomorrow,” she said, citing lessons from COVID-19 and Ebola. She also emphasized the vital role of women in health research, particularly in data collection.

From a global perspective, Michelle Nderu of the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) described the summit as “pivotal,” noting that consolidating Africa’s fragmented clinical research data will strengthen institutions, boost collaboration, and shape health policies.

Providing the Nigerian perspective, Professor Toyin Togun of LSHTM described Nigeria as central to any meaningful continental health strategy, given its population and disease burden. He acknowledged challenges such as poor data quality, weak infrastructure, and limited standardization but expressed optimism that ongoing collaborations would bridge these gaps.

The workshop is expected to culminate in an “Abuja Declaration”, a strategic roadmap endorsed by representatives from over 12 West African countries to advance data excellence, strengthen governance, and accelerate research-driven health solutions.

As deliberations continue, one message was clear: Africa’s ability to confront pressing health challenges depends on its capacity to unite, protect, and leverage its data effectively.