General News
New Platform Offers Nigerians Free Access to Health Info
Chibuike Alagboso, the co-founder of HealthNewsNG.com, Africa’s leading online platform for health news, has revealed that the media platform is bridging the gap between health professionals and individuals without any form of medical training.
In an exclusive chat, he said the platform was set up to provide visitors with sufficient information that would enable them to take informed and correct medical decisions.
“The goal is to help bridge the enormous gap that exists between health professionals and individuals without any form of medical training. HealthNewsNG.com enables them to take informed and correct medical decisions whenever the need arises,” Alagboso said.
Already, he said the platform has helped in raising the level of health consciousness and awareness among its thousands of daily visitors from across the world.
He said: “We have been able to raise the level of awareness among our diverse readers who are not restricted to Nigeria or Africa; in fact, we get thousands of visitors daily in USA, United Kingdom, China, Ukraine, India, Canada, Australia and several other foreign lands.”
For the health professionals, he said the platform is offering them access to the latest medical researches as well as helping them with professional development through partnerships with various local and international conference organizers.
“Various health professionals have been able to get continuing professional development (CPD) through our platform; also, many of them have attended international conferences and symposia as a result of our working partnership with organizers of highly revered conferences and exhibitions such as Medic West Africa, Africa Health Conference & Exhibition holding in South Africa, Africa Healthcare Summit holding in London, and the International Conference and Exhibition on Pathology holding in San Antonio, USA,” he said.
On the choice of internet as the medium of choice for disseminating confidential health information, he said the reach and potentials of the internet are immense and limitless.
He said: “The internet is no doubt the best place because of its limitless reach and potential as people tend to turn to the internet daily to find answers to their everyday questions.
“The internet is a good platform because people can easily obtain information without having to contend with the challenge of confidentiality.”
On why the platform is also attracting visitors from countries where citizens don’t speak English language, he said technology allows translation into their native language.
“English has always been a universally accepted language and that is the language of choice on our website. But with increasing sophistication in technology, and introduction of translators, language is no longer a barrier as our readers can translate our pages and the entire website to their desire language,” Alagboso said.
Nigeria’s Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market is on a fast-growing trajectory and is predicted to be valued $2.61 billion by 2030, up 83% from $1.42 billion in 2024, owing primarily to the rapid emergence of fintechs in the country.
This observation was stated in EnterpriseNGR’s State of Enterprise 2025 report, which focuses on how fintechs are reshaping Nigeria’s business landscape through digital innovations, accessible credit systems, and mobile-first financial tools.
As a credit system, BNPL allows users to stagger payments for products and services, making it a key development driver in Nigeria’s developing digital economy.
From 2021 to 2024, the BNPL experienced a compounded annual growth rate of 23.1%. Fintechs have contributed to the rapid growth by providing a range of flexible loan alternatives for e-commerce, retail, and services, bridging financial gaps for millions of disadvantaged Nigerians.
The report highlights how fintechs have contributed to Nigeria’s flexibility and resiliency by simplifying digital payments, automating invoicing and payroll systems, and democratising credit through platforms such as Renmoney and FairMoney.
The report also shows a significant rise in remittance inflows into Nigeria following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 2024 policy adjustments.
According to the report, by 2024, Nigeria boasted over 400 licensed digital lenders who extend collateral-free credit to those commonly excluded by banks.
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) strengthened bilateral relations with the Netherlands’ government through an agreement targeted at improving migration governance and border security.
This partnership was confirmed during a meeting at the NIS headquarters in Abuja, which was attended by a Dutch team led by Jurgen Bartelink, Chargé D’Affaires of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Nigeria.
The meeting focused on increasing bilateral migration cooperation and came after the comptroller general of Immigration, Kemi Nandap, paid a working visit to the Netherlands.
Under the agreement, the Dutch government pledged to continue supporting technology-driven solutions targeted at boosting Nigeria’s border control systems and improving migration management.
During the Netherlands Embassy diplomats handed over essential operational tools, such as Edison Software licence keys and the Passport Examination Programme Manual App.
According to NIS spokeswoman ACI Akinsola Akinlabi, “The partnership focuses on enhancing bilateral collaboration on migration management and reviewing ongoing capacity-building efforts.”
Bartelink, Chargé d’Affaires of the Netherlands Embassy in Nigeria, underlined the Netherlands’ commitment to helping Nigeria’s continuing border security and migration reforms.
Also speaking, Rob Bokhoven, head of international affairs, repatriation, and deportation services at the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, emphasised the country’s strong bilateral relations and announced plans to share a mobile border software solution with the NIS.
Receiving the equipment, Nandap said the delivery of the gadgets would boost West African country’s border security, significantly improve the service’s document verification border management capabilities and support the implementation of Nigeria’s National Migration Policy.
“The engagement will further reinforce the strategic partnership between Nigeria and the Netherlands advancing shared goals in migration governance, border security and international cooperation,” she added.
Peter Enogb, principal country economist, African Development Bank (AfDB), says the rise in global uncertainty, emanating from increases in global trade tariffs, has slowed Nigeria’s projected growth to 3.2% in 2025.
“Without this level of heightened uncertainty, our projections would probably have been somewhat higher. We’ve reduced our projections for Nigeria. We initially were projecting 3.5% – 3.6% growth in 2025.
“But given the current situation, our models are showing that we’re taking a more cautious approach. So that’s why we produced this and, of course, the main driver is uncertainty in the global economy,” Enogb said.
He said this at the launch of the 2025 Nigeria Country Focus Report (CFR) on Thursday.
AFDB projected that real GDP growth would hit 3.1% in 2026. Following the 2024 consumer price index (CPI) rebasing, with lower weights for food items, the inflation rate is expected to reduce over the medium term to 24.7% in 2025 and 17.3% in 2026.
As imports start to rise over the medium term, the current account is projected to decline to 3.9% of GDP in 2026.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that Nigeria’s headline inflation slowed for the second consecutive month to 22.97% in May. This is down from 24.48% at the start of the year
This is contrary to the World Bank projection that Nigeria’s economy would record steady growth of 3.6% despite the shift in the global trade dynamics.
Joseph Ogebe, head of research and development at Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), also said that global uncertainty had been very high in recent times, resulting from the Trump 2.0 effect.
“And also with the recent war between Israel and the international community, we’ve seen what’s happening to oil prices. Even with the call-off of the war, we’ve seen the effect on oil prices too, which has implications on the fiscal side. So it has implications for the general economy,” he said.
The head of research at NESG said that rather than focusing on just growth, what should be looked at is a strategy called growth with depth.
“Growth with depth means that your growth must be diversified, export-led, productive, and technologically driven,” he said.
Ogebe said that if the Government works towards adopting a strategy of growth with depth, there is a tendency for the government to move towards its goal of achieving a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
The report revealed that the country’s recent policy moves, including fuel subsidy removal, exchange rate unification, and tax reforms, reflect a commitment to long-term transformation.
However, it also pointed out that at about 13%, Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio is among the lowest in West Africa, noting that fiscal reforms are urgent.
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