The Challenges of Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in the Health Care Sector in Nigeria

The adoption and implementation of artificial intelligence in the health care sector has brought along side with it, innovative ideas and applications leading to improvement in patients outcome, reducing clinical work flows, fostering effective decision making, amongst others Africa as a continent is struggling with various health issues such as infectious and communicable diseases, maternal and child health care concerns The Atlas of African health statistics states that African region faces significant challenges which include high maternal and mortality rate, with 390 women dying in child birth, for every 100,000 live birth and 72 infant death per 10,000 infant birth .The growth of artificial intelligence in the health care sector in Africa is promising and has been on a steady rise across the continent. In spite of this, there are various challenges influencing the adoption and implementation of AI in Nigeria. This study examines the challenges of AI in the health care sector in Nigeria. This study is anchored on the Technology Acceptance Model(TAM) The research team conducted 30 in-depth interviews (IDI) among purposively sampled health care practitioners in the six geopolitical zones between December 2023-April 2024. The data were content analysed. The study found that the challenges were multifaceted and includes limited infrastructure, staff shortage and skill gaps, data privacy concerns, cultural and social barriers, socioeconomic disparities such as access to education resources, and infrastructure fraud, embezzlement and weak and obsolete infrastructure. The study concludes that there is need for government policies on adoption and implementation of AI and more intervention and support in the health care sector.