eClat, Interswitch’s health subsidiary, snags second government partnership in one year

eClat, the health-tech subsidiary of Nigerian payment giant Interswitch, has partnered with the Lagos State Ministry of Health to launch a cloud-based platform, Smart Health Information Platform (SHIP), that will manage and transmit data for all state-owned healthcare facilities. This is the second government partnership eClat has secured in about a year.

The Lagos state government believes the platform will improve the efficiency of the state’s health ministry and resources.

“When the data are in one place, we can then use that data and collect trends on the health-seeking behaviour of Lagosians,” Akin Abayomi, the health commissioner, said on June 18, during the signing of the concession between the Office of Public Private Partnership and the Digital Health Platform Limited (a special purpose vehicle) entailing the state’s Ministry of Health, Interswitch and eClat).

Image source: Interswitch

This partnership will digitise the paper-based data management and sharing system of all the state-owned hospitals and consequently put a significant amount of data from Nigeria’s most populous city, in the control of eClat. General hospitals in Lagos alone generate data from over 7 million persons, according to Abayomi. The state’s over 256 public healthcare centres generate and manage a significant amount too.

This is eClat’s second government partnership since Interswitch acquired it to expand its payment services in the healthcare sector. In May 2023, the health tech partnered with the Ogun State government and launched eClat’s core service, eClinic to digitise data management at one of the state’s teaching hospitals.

The long-term goal, for eClat, is to create an “API-enabled digital platform that allows all health ecosystem platforms to collaborate and securely share data,” a spokesperson told TechCabal.

The partnership, which will facilitate digital bill payment for those hospitals, is a direct positive for Interswitch’s payment business. The payment giant told TechCabal that it validates the reasoning for Interswitch’s 2019 acquisition of eClat which is to “position the Interswitch group as a health-tech solution and payments provider of choice to the healthcare industry.”

Government partnerships of this nature are part of Interswitch’s overarching goal to increase the adoption of digital payment in Nigeria’s cash-dominated economy. “ There is tremendous value, financial and otherwise, locked up in sectors and areas where government is a key player, particularly in the aspects of healthcare, transportation, and other basic social services,” Mitchell Elegbe, founder and CEO of Interswitch, said at the concession signing event.

Before its acquisition by Interswitch, eClat’s electronic health record platform was used in over 250 public and private healthcare facilities in Nigeria. The new government partnership will see that number increase significantly.