FG To Launch Electronic Portal For Health Research

The Federal Government has pledged to launch an electronic portal before the end of 2025 to revolutionise health research proposal submission, approval and enhance Nigeria’s capacity to conduct ethical review processes of high-quality that meet international standards.

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Salako, revealed this during the ongoing two-day workshop on electronic portal protocol management system and national ethics standardisation sensitisation in Abuja on Thursday.

Salako said the workshop was a significant step towards streamlining and strengthening research ethics review processes in Nigeria.

Salako, who was represented by the Director and Head, Department of Health Planning, Research and Statistics at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Kamil Shoretire, explained that the workshop was aimed at training the National Health Research Ethics Committee in carrying out its responsibilities in enforcing standards and protocols for ethically conducting clinical research in Nigeria.

According to Shoretire, the committee is very important in ensuring that it is not just any type of research that people will do without observing the necessary ethical guidelines, which are standard guidelines set for anyone who wants to do research, especially research that concerns the human beings, either you go to the hospital to talk to patients to ask about their personal information with respect to their well-being or what they do; these must follow the standard process and procedures.

Speaking further he said, “The committee will make sure that every proposal that is submitted for research passes through the necessary procedure, ensure that the research is done properly, and also ensure that researchers are ethical about the research. The e-portal is expected to start before the end of the year.

“Because we need to test run it after this training and also see how effectively it is working before we tell the world to submit research proposals. We are making sure that by the end of the third quarter of this year, they should start submitting.

“As a researcher in Canada or Australia, or anywhere, you can just log into the portal, make your submission, and if there are fees to be paid for review, you pay it, fulfil all requirements, make all the attachments that is needed, submit it, and they will allocate it to the reviewer. The reviewer goes through it, asks questions and sends you feedback.”

The Special Adviser to the Minister of State for Health on research and innovation, Lolade Adeyemi, stated that the Federal Government remains committed to financially supporting research initiatives across the country.

“Never before has there been a special advisor on research and innovation. So they have provided some funding, but it’s not enough. We have some partners, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Centre, who are supporting this event in addition to the Federal Government.

“So once the international community sees that we’re doing this, they will see that this is what they want to partner with us. So the government has to provide more funding, and they’re doing that.

“If it has to be sustainable, maybe some things have to be paid for. So we’re also trying to have conversations about maybe charging a nominal fee. So we have to find mechanisms of sustainability to be able to pay for this, and these are things that we’re talking about in this meeting. But also, the Federal Government has to put more money into research,” she said.

The Chairman of NHREC, and a professor of microbiology and bacterial infections, Richard Adegbola, said a major problem in research was the lack of infrastructural support.

He said, “The major problem is infrastructural support in terms of the way we submit, review, and return the outcome of the report. What that leads to is inefficiency and delay of protocols. And in fact, even those who have grant support to do their study.”

Speaking further he added that, “If you know about grants, they are time-bound, so they may lose their grants because they cannot start their project until they get ethical approval.

“What the e-portal will do is that the investigator will be able to monitor his or her submission in real-time, you will know whether it’s been accepted, whether the period of review is within the base or the time that they have allocated to it. And if not, you can raise queries and issues on the timeline.”

He also pointed out that the e-portal will improve efficiency and harmonise how things are done across the country.

In his goodwill message, Dr. Collins Mitambo of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation reiterated the importance of strong regulatory and ethical systems in driving innovation and trust in clinical research.

“The future of public health and medical innovation in Africa relies heavily on our ability to conduct research that is not only scientifically sound but also ethically robust.

“This two-year project reflects a shared commitment to build systems that protect participants, ensure data integrity, and foster public trust. The project will ensure the clinical trial review process is efficient, predictable and transparent,” he said.

Mitambo, while commending the government’s commitment to strengthening research governance and expressing optimism about the long-term impact of the project, noted that the optimisation initiative will support the capacity-building of regulatory bodies, ethics committees, and research institutions in Nigeria.

FG To Launch Electronic Portal For Health Research is first published on The Whistler Newspaper