CapacityPlus (led by IntraHealth International) is collaborating with the West African Health Organization (WAHO) to improve the human resources registration and licensing reporting systems for the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria by implementing iHRIS Qualify. Recently, a team comprised of staff from the collaborating organizations traveled to Nigeria to conduct a site survey of the Council’s existing information systems. The team, led by Kayode Odusote, director of human resources development at WAHO, collected feedback to assess the ability of iHRIS Qualify to meet the Council's needs, and identified challenges to implementation.

According to the assessment, the Council’s current system is largely paper-based, registration is handled manually, and information is kept in 19 different physical registries. While there are two separate information systems to support indexing and some aspects of licensing, these systems are not linked, the information contained in them is incomplete, and the verification process is limited. Both systems were developed by a local vendor who has sole access to the development code and permission to download data. Also, these systems have no reporting function, which means all statistical information is generated manually and then compiled using Excel.

The team interviewed council staff who expressed a desire for a more integrated system that will improve accuracy, allow online access to all records, and improve reporting functions. They suggested several customizations to iHRIS Qualify, such as online submission of applications, the ability to view previously saved passport photos for verification, and the ability to produce reports that meet specific needs of the Council.

Odusote is now working with developers from CapacityPlus developers to customize two appliances for the Council. He hopes to install them in the Council’s offices in Lagos and Abuja as part of the first phase of the computerization of the Council’s registration functions before the end of September 2010.