SQHN Hosts 2025 Annual Conference and Elebute Memorial Lecture to Advance Quality Healthcare in Nigeria

The Society for Quality in Healthcare in Nigeria (SQHN), one of the country’s foremost organisations championing healthcare quality and patient safety, has convened its 2025 Annual Conference alongside the Professors Emmanuel Adeyemo & Oyinade Elebute Memorial Lecture at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island.

Centred on the theme “Reimagining Healthcare Quality in Nigeria: Local Action, Global Insight, Lasting Impact”, the event brought together healthcare leaders, frontline practitioners, policymakers and academics to explore innovative strategies and best practices aimed at strengthening patient safety and quality improvement nationwide. The conference also reinforced SQHN’s long-standing commitment to promoting continuous improvement in healthcare standards across Nigeria.

In the build-up to the main conference, SQHN partnered with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to deliver a pre-conference Quality Improvement Workshop on Tuesday, 11 November 2025. More than 200 participants attended the practical, hands-on training session, which focused on enhancing patient flow and reducing hospital waiting times – two persistent challenges in Nigeria’s healthcare system.

A keynote address by Dr Don Berwick, globally renowned healthcare quality expert and IHI co-founder, headlined the main event. His keynote was followed by three high-level panel discussions featuring leading voices from the Nigerian health sector. The conversations examined quality as the bedrock of Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the crucial role of regulation in driving patient safety, and the increasing impact of technology on delivering efficient, high-quality care.

Reflecting on the importance of the annual gathering, Mrs Fola Laoye, Member of the Board of Trustees of SQHN, reaffirmed the organisation’s mission to embed a culture of quality across all levels of care in Nigeria.
She said:
“As we gather for the second edition of the Elebute Memorial Lecture, we are reminded that improving healthcare quality in Nigeria is both a professional duty and a moral responsibility. Our mission at SQHN is to ensure that every patient, in every part of this country, experiences care that is safe, effective, and dignified. This conference is a call to action to learn, to collaborate, and to push the boundaries of what quality healthcare in Nigeria can be.”

This year’s conference comes at a pivotal time for Nigeria’s health sector. The 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey shows that only 46 per cent of births are attended by skilled health workers, while neonatal mortality remains high at 41 deaths per 1,000 live births. With just 18.7 million Nigerians covered by health insurance in a population exceeding 220 million, the country faces substantial challenges in progressing towards Sustainable Development Goal 3.8 on universal health coverage. As 2030 approaches, experts emphasise the need for locally led, evidence-based quality improvement efforts to reverse these trends.

Keynote speaker Dr. Don Berwick underscored the global responsibility to support healthcare quality improvement everywhere.
He said “In terms of universal improvement skills, Nigeria has this gem, SQHN, who are a great resource in this country, and IHI (Institute of Healthcare Improvement) is ready to help set a national goal on what the skill level for everybody in healthcare should be.”

The event attracted an impressive line-up of special guests, including Dr. Kelechi Ohiri, Director-General/CEO of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA); Prof. Akin Abayomi, Lagos State Commissioner for Health; Prof. Philip Abiodun, Chairman of the National Tertiary Health Institutions Standards Committee; and Mrs. Njide Ndili, President of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN), among others.

Beyond presentations and panel sessions, the conference created a vibrant platform for networking among healthcare professionals, policymakers, and academics, facilitating collaboration and knowledge exchange aimed at improving health outcomes nationwide.

Now in its second decade of championing healthcare quality, SQHN continues to drive Nigeria’s quality improvement movement through training, standards-setting, accreditation, and patient safety initiatives. These efforts align with international best practices while remaining sensitive to Nigeria’s unique healthcare realities.

With the country still grappling with infrastructure deficits, workforce shortages, and fragmented service delivery, the 2025 conference sought to catalyse real progress through partnerships, knowledge sharing and evidence-based policy recommendations.