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Paper short abstract

Digital health is reshaping public health in Nigeria through mobile platforms, electronic records, biometrics, and others. This paper examines how these technologies intersect with power, inequality, and governance, assessing the beneficiaries, the excluded, and their impact on Africa's future.

Paper long abstract

Digital health technologies are increasingly central to public health reform across Africa. In Nigeria, mobile health applications, telemedicine, electronic health records, biometric identification systems, and data-driven surveillance are promoted as solutions to weak health infrastructure, workforce shortages, and limited financing. These developments reflect a broader shift towards data-driven and technology-mediated public health governance.

This paper critically examines the rise of digital health in Nigeria through the lens of power, inequality, and uncertain futures. Rather than viewing technology as neutral, it situates digital health within Nigeria’s political economy, marked by deep social inequalities, uneven state capacity, donor dependence, and fragmented health systems. The paper asks who designs and governs digital health technologies, who benefits from them, and who is excluded.

It argues that while digital health holds potential to expand access and improve efficiency, its implementation often reinforces existing inequalities. Access remains uneven across gender, income, geography, age, literacy, and connectivity, excluding rural communities, informal settlements, older populations, and people with disabilities. The paper also interrogates the political economy of digital health governance, highlighting concerns around data ownership, accountability, surveillance, and external influence. It concludes by calling for more equitable, locally grounded, and accountable digital health governance that prioritises inclusion, data sovereignty, and community participation in Nigeria and across Africa.