eClat, the health-tech subsidiary of Nigerian payment giant Interswitch, has announced a partnership with the Lagos State Ministry of Health to launch the Smart Health Information Platform (SHIP). This cloud-based platform will manage and transmit data for all state-owned healthcare facilities. This marks eClat’s second government partnership in just over a year.
The Lagos State government anticipates that SHIP will enhance the efficiency of the state’s health ministry and resource management. “When data are consolidated, we can analyze trends in the health-seeking behavior of Lagosians,” stated Akin Abayomi, the health commissioner, during the concession signing on June 18. This agreement involves the Office of Public Private Partnership, Digital Health Platform Limited (a special purpose vehicle), the Ministry of Health, Interswitch, and eClat.
This initiative will transition all state-owned hospitals from paper-based data management to a digital system, placing a vast amount of healthcare data from Nigeria’s most populous city under eClat’s management. According to Abayomi, general hospitals in Lagos generate data from over 7 million individuals, with the state’s 256+ public healthcare centers contributing a significant amount as well.
This partnership follows eClat’s previous collaboration with the Ogun State government in May 2023, where they launched eClinic to digitize data management at one of the state’s teaching hospitals. eClat aims to develop an “API-enabled digital platform that allows all health ecosystem platforms to collaborate and securely share data,” as a spokesperson explained to TechCabal.
The partnership will also facilitate digital bill payments for these hospitals, directly benefiting Interswitch’s payment business. Interswitch noted that this move validates their 2019 acquisition of eClat, which was intended to position the Interswitch group as the preferred health-tech solution and payments provider in the healthcare industry.
Government partnerships like this one are crucial to Interswitch’s broader strategy of promoting digital payment adoption in Nigeria’s predominantly cash-based economy. “There is tremendous value, financial and otherwise, in sectors where the government is a key player, especially in healthcare, transportation, and other basic social services,” said Mitchell Elegbe, founder and CEO of Interswitch, at the concession signing event.
Before its acquisition by Interswitch, eClat’s electronic health record platform was utilized in over 250 public and private healthcare facilities across Nigeria. This new government partnership is expected to significantly increase that number.
