Nigeria has acknowledged serious gaps in its ability to track drug-resistant infections, warning that the available figures may understate a public-health threat already detected in hospitals across the country.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare Muhammad Ali Pate said on Monday, 12 October 2026, that Nigeria has evidence of antimicrobial resistance in healthcare facilities but lacks the surveillance capacity needed to produce a complete national estimate.
He spoke in Abuja during a joint ministerial briefing ahead of the fifth Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance, which Nigeria is scheduled to host from 6 to 8 December.
Antimicrobial resistance, commonly called AMR, develops when bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites no longer respond properly to medicines. Infections then become harder and more expensive to treat, while routine surgery, childbirth and cancer treatment can carry greater risks.
The known figures may be an underestimate
Nigeria’s One Health Antimicrobial Resistance National Action Plan estimates that 64,500 deaths in the country during 2019 were directly attributable to AMR. It associates a further 263,400 deaths with resistant infections.
Those are modelled estimates rather than a complete count of laboratory-confirmed cases. The national plan cautions that the true burden may be underestimated because testing and reporting remain uneven.
Pate said surveillance capability determines the quality of the figures available to policymakers. Without reliable samples from hospitals, community clinics, veterinary services and laboratories across the country, authorities cannot see which medicines are failing, where resistant organisms are spreading or which patients face the greatest danger.
A 2025 assessment of 302 Nigerian laboratories found that only 7.3 per cent were considered fully ready to support AMR surveillance. Just 12.3 per cent reported participating in surveillance activity. Most of the existing capacity was concentrated in government and tertiary-level laboratories, leaving gaps in rural areas and lower-level health facilities.
This matters because a patient may receive several antibiotics before a laboratory identifies the organism causing an infection. Delayed or absent testing encourages treatment by trial and error, raises costs for families and gives resistant organisms more opportunities to spread.
National survey should provide a baseline
Nigeria launched its first nationally representative AMR survey in December 2025. The exercise is designed to cover between 40 and 45 randomly selected health facilities and approximately 35,000 patients suspected of having bloodstream infections.
The survey is expected to measure illness, deaths and treatment costs linked to resistant infections while strengthening laboratory and data systems. Publishing its results, methodology and state-level coverage will be critical if the exercise is to guide spending and clinical practice.
Nigeria’s 2024 to 2028 AMR action plan includes six strategic objectives, 40 intervention areas and hundreds of activities covering leadership, public awareness, surveillance, infection prevention, responsible medicine use and research. Implementation, however, depends on sustained funding, trained laboratory staff and consistent reporting from states.
Resistance also develops beyond hospitals
The warning is not limited to human healthcare. Pate said Nigeria’s livestock sector uses more antibiotics than the human health sector, creating risks that can move between animals, people, food and the environment.
Antibiotics are important for treating sick animals, but unnecessary or poorly controlled use can select resistant bacteria. These organisms can reach people through food handling, direct contact, water, soil and waste.
Livestock officials have urged farmers to use antibiotics only under professional guidance and to observe withdrawal periods before meat, milk or eggs enter the market. Environmental officials also want safer management of pharmaceutical, hospital and farm waste.
The government says its One Health response brings together the ministries responsible for health, agriculture, livestock and the environment. The ministries have promised joint action, responsible medicine use, better infection prevention and public reporting on progress.
What Nigerians can do now
Individuals cannot solve the surveillance shortage, but they can reduce practices that accelerate resistance. Nigerians should avoid buying antibiotics for ordinary coughs, catarrh or other illnesses without a proper assessment. Antibiotics do not treat viral infections, and using the wrong medicine can delay effective care.
Patients should take prescribed medicines exactly as directed, avoid sharing leftover antibiotics and return to a qualified health professional when treatment does not work. Pharmacies and medicine vendors also have a responsibility not to dispense prescription antibiotics indiscriminately.
Good vaccination coverage, handwashing, safe water, sanitation and infection-control procedures reduce the number of illnesses that require antimicrobial treatment. Accurate diagnosis is equally important. As Lagos health officials previously warned in Podium’s report on the misuse of malaria treatment, symptoms such as fever can have several causes and should not automatically trigger a particular medicine.
The government must also address the availability of counterfeit and substandard medicines, which can expose infections to inadequate doses and encourage resistance. Stronger regulation must be matched with access to quality diagnostics and affordable treatment so that stewardship does not become another barrier for low-income patients.
Abuja conference must produce measurable action
The December meeting will be the first Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on AMR held in Africa. Delegates from more than 100 countries are expected to discuss human, animal and environmental health and adopt an Abuja Compact for translating international promises into local action.
Hosting a global conference gives Nigeria visibility, but the domestic test is practical. Authorities should publish the national survey results, expand laboratory coverage beyond tertiary hospitals, show how many states submit usable data and report whether healthcare facilities follow antimicrobial-stewardship standards.
The effort will also require financing. Podium has previously reported on Nigeria’s plans for additional health-sector investment, but surveillance systems need dependable operating funds, not only new announcements.
Drug resistance often becomes visible only when familiar treatment fails. By then, patients may have spent more money, remained ill longer and exposed others. Nigeria’s admission that its data remain incomplete is therefore important, but acknowledgement must now lead to laboratories, reporting systems and safer medicine use that work across the country.
Readers should consult qualified health professionals before using antibiotics and can report suspected falsified or substandard medicines to the appropriate regulatory authorities.
