By Danjuma Amodu | January 20, 2026
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziak Adekunle Salako, opened the 2026 Face‑to‑Face Meeting and Training Workshop of the National Health Research Ethics Committee (NHREC) at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja, on 20 January 2026.
He commended the committee’s progress since its 2024 inauguration under Professor Richard Adegbola, noting that NHREC has been “working very hard to raise the bar for ethical health research by overseeing and ensuring timely approval of health‑research proposals.”
Dr Salako highlighted the launch of NHREC’s new e‑portal, a secure, user‑friendly digital interface that replaces the former email‑based submission system. The portal enables online submission, real‑time tracking, automated workflows and centralised communication, promising faster, transparent and accountable ethics reviews. He called on researchers, institutions, sub‑national health‑research committees and international partners to fully adopt the platform to protect participants and uphold scientific integrity.
The Minister also recognised the support of key partners, the Gates Foundation, US‑CDC, WHO/African Vaccine Regulatory Forum (AVAREF), the Multi‑Regional Clinical Trials (MRCT) Centre and GARNET – for strengthening NHREC’s functions. The ongoing Trial Regulation and Clinical Ethics Optimization (TRACE) project was cited as a “welcome development” that the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare will build on to create a sustainable ethical environment for clinical trials in Nigeria.
Dr Salako reaffirmed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to funding local research for new drugs, vaccines and disease epidemiology, stressing that such investment can only deliver optimal benefits within an ethically sound framework. He urged NHREC members to “redouble their efforts and accelerate the movement towards a fully ethically compliant health‑research environment in Nigeria.”
Nigeria’s health‑research ethics system began with the establishment of NHREC in 2005 and was formally empowered by the National Health Act of 2014, giving it authority to oversee ethical approvals, issue guidelines and monitor research involving human subjects. A new NHREC, chaired by Professor Richard Adegbola, was inaugurated on 23 January 2024 and has since worked to modernise its processes. To address delays and inefficiencies of the manual, email‑based review system, NHREC developed an electronic protocol submission platform (e‑portal), unveiled in October 2024 and launched for public use on 1 July 2025.
The portal streamlines submission, review, monitoring and approval of research protocols, aligning Nigeria with global best practices in digital ethics administration.
The TRACE project, supporter or by international partners, aims to improve the integrity, safety and rigour of clinical trials across participating countries, further reinforcing Nigeria’s capacity to conduct ethically sound research.
These reforms are part of a broader government agenda to foster domestic ownership of research, build public trust and contribute to national health security under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
