Dr. Oyebanji Filani
Honourable Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Ekiti State, Nigeria.
SPEAKER: Clinical Research as a vehicle to expanding Universal Health Coverage and the Role of stakeholders DAY 1
Dr Oyebanji Filani is a Global Health Leader and MD with over 17 years of experience in health financing and health systems reforms. He currently serves as the Honourable Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Ekiti State, Nigeria. As a strategic thought leader, he has built a proven track record of leadership and a deep understanding of the complex challenges facing global health today.
In 2020, he was appointed as the Commissioner for Health and Human Services in Ekiti State, Nigeria, where he successfully increased development partner investments in the state’s health sector by over 300%. During his leadership, Ekiti State was recognized as the best-performing state in the country for disease surveillance and response. He employed a systems-thinking approach to address health service delivery in Ekiti State, establishing Nigeria’s first Governance Innovation Accelerator Challenge in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Governance Lab and Co-Creation Hub.
He also served as the Technical Director of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) between 2019 and 2020. In this role, he provided thought leadership on the program, drove its implementation, and ensured performance indicators were met in the 36 states of Nigeria. He also served as the Senior Adviser to the immediate past Federal Minister of Health in Nigeria from 2016 to 2019, leading the data and analytical work that enabled the mobilization of an annual $180m domestic and development partner resources under the BHCPF.
He has served on several committees, including the Technical Committee of the World Bank/USAID led Annual Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Forum, the Advisory Committee for the Strategic Purchasing Africa Resource Center (SPARC), and the Advisory Board to develop a global Health Equity Program of Action.
In October 2022, he was re-appointed as the Commissioner for Health and Human Services in Ekiti State and serves as the Chairperson of the Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum, where he guides his colleagues on critical health systems reform issues at the sub-national level.
