In response to the fragmentation of health data, several African countries are working to improve communication between their health information systems. In Nigeria, the government is developing a national digital architecture aimed at reducing this fragmentation. Health authorities are seeking to end a situation where data remains siloed, limiting its usefulness for care, monitoring, and decision-making. The country is creating a National Digital Health Architecture (NDHA) to ensure systems used by health facilities and programs can work together. This would allow for more complete data to be used in patient care, public health monitoring, and policy decisions. Iziaq Salako, Minister of State for Health and Social Affairs, explained that the NDHA, approved by the National Health Council, outlines the rules and roadmap for Nigeria’s digital health ecosystem. The initiative is part of the Nigeria Digital in Health Initiative (NDHI), which includes components like a shared health record, health information exchange, and national registries for patients, health facilities, and professionals. The goal is to have a health record tied to each patient that can be accessed across different levels of the health system. However, the challenge goes beyond modernizing systems. For years, Nigeria has invested in digital solutions, but many are tailored to specific programs or institutions, making data exchange difficult. The Ministry of Health acknowledges that some facilities use electronic medical records, but these are not always standardized or connected. Some parts of the system still rely on paper records. Connecting these systems would allow information to be gathered from different facilities, programs, and administrative levels. For patients, this would mean authorized professionals can access more complete health information during their care. For health authorities, better data connections can help track diseases, monitor facility performance, and allocate resources more effectively. In Ivory Coast and Senegal, similar efforts are underway to enable communication between health information systems. Ivory Coast is establishing a national interoperability platform to allow secure and standardized data exchange between systems. The country also has a National Health Data Platform that centralizes health indicators and provides access through application programming interfaces (APIs). In Senegal, the government is rolling out a Digital Patient Record, starting with 51 health facilities. The plan includes creating a single, shared patient record and addressing interoperability as a key challenge in the digital transformation of healthcare. The goal is to ensure health data is portable, accessible, and secure. Rwanda has already begun using data from multiple systems to guide health decisions. Its Health Intelligence Center, launched in 2025, centralizes and analyzes data from various national systems, including primary care, disease surveillance, and supply chains. The aim is not just to share data, but to turn it into actionable information for decision-making. This evolution comes in response to a problem identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) at the regional level. According to WHO Africa, the fragmentation of data across systems, lack of interoperability, and weaknesses in data governance are major reasons why health data is underused. In 2024, the average maturity of health information systems in the 37 evaluated countries in Africa was only 58%, placing them in the "early" development category. To address this, WHO Africa launched its Regional Health Data Hub in August 2026, which brings together data from different programs and health systems. The hub already includes 53 data sets and 7,965 indicators, aiming to transform scattered information into usable data for public health decisions. For African health systems, the challenge is no longer just to generate more data, but to ensure that this information can be shared, understood, and used effectively and in a timely manner. Strengthening health information systems, improving data governance, and using data for decision-making are essential for better health outcomes across the continent.