BasaniPublic reference
Nigeria’s National Genomics and Digital Health Infrastructure Programme
A federal programme to build the sequencing, biobanking, bioinformatics and digital health infrastructure Nigeria needs to take part in the global bioeconomy on its own terms. This page is maintained as a public reference.
Mandate
The Agency and the Agreement
The National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency (NBRDA) is a federal agency under the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, established by an Act of 2022 to develop Nigeria’s biotechnology capability. One of its flagship initiatives is a national genomics and bioinformatics data repository.
Basani works with NBRDA under a Memorandum of Agreement to design, implement and operate the programme’s digital infrastructure. NBRDA provides the governmental mandate, the regulatory interface, and the national scientific assets the programme is built on.
Programme scope
Sequencing, biobanking and bioinformatics
National genomics sequencing, biobanking and bioinformatics infrastructure.
Digital health platforms
Secure digital health platforms and interoperability layers.
Population health analytics
Analytics, population health and disease surveillance.
Research and capacity building
Research, capacity building and technology commercialisation.
The gap
Reference Data Does Not Describe Nigerians Well
Human genetic diversity is greatest in Africa, yet African populations are among the least represented in genomic reference databases.
Variants common in Nigerian populations are more likely to be classified as of uncertain significance, simply because no one has characterised them at scale, and drug response findings derived largely from European cohorts do not transfer reliably.
Closing that gap requires data generated in Nigeria, governed in Nigeria, and made available to researchers under conditions Nigeria sets.
Source: Fatumo et al., Nature Medicine, 2022
European share of GWAS participants, 2016 to mid-2025. The gap is widening, not closing.
Loss of predictive accuracy when European-derived polygenic risk scores are applied to African-ancestry cohorts.
The imbalance is not static. The European share of genomics study participants rose from 81 percent in 2016 to roughly 88 percent by mid-2025, while continental African populations remained below one percent. Every year the reference data gets better for some populations and no better for Nigerians.
The clearest case
Nigeria Carries the Heaviest Burden
Sickle cell disease is the clearest illustration of what national genomic infrastructure is for. Nigeria accounts for between a quarter and a third of global sickle cell births, and nearly half of affected children do not reach their fifth birthday. It is a single-gene condition, which means carrier status, newborn screening and treatment stratification are all tractable with the right data infrastructure in place.
What is missing is not the science. It is national screening capacity, linked clinical records, and a governed data resource that Nigerian researchers and clinicians can actually use.
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