Nigeria has recorded a major milestone in advanced healthcare technology after a surgical team successfully performed what the institutions involved described as the first tele-robotic surgery in West Africa, with the surgeon operating remotely on a patient about 500 kilometres away.
The procedure was carried out through a collaboration involving Redeemer’s Health Village (RHV), RoboMed Global Inc. and Nisa Premier Hospital in Abuja.
Professor Obi Davies-Ekwenna, a urologic and transplant surgeon, led the procedure from the robotic console at RHV in Mowe, Ogun State, while the patient remained at Nisa Premier Hospital in Abuja. Reports from the participating institutions and Nigerian media place the procedure on September 19, 2026.
The operation was a robot-assisted right radical nephrectomy, a procedure involving the removal of a kidney affected by a cancerous tumour.
The robotic system at the Abuja hospital was connected to the surgeon’s control console in Ogun State through a high-speed internet connection, allowing Davies-Ekwenna to control the surgical instruments remotely and perform the operation in real time.
Speaking after the procedure, Davies-Ekwenna described the operation as an example of how tele-robotic technology could reduce geographical barriers to specialist medical care.
“We were able to operate on a patient in Abuja, 500 kilometres away. We were able to operate on a patient with a kidney tumour, a cancer tumour. And so that was successful,” he said.
He said the technology could allow patients to access specialists in Nigeria and other parts of the world without necessarily travelling to the location of the surgeon.
“It means access to experts from within and outside the country. Telesurgery can be done from any part of the world with precision, with excellent results,” Davies-Ekwenna said.
The procedure followed the recent establishment of RHV’s robotic surgery programme through its partnership with RoboMed Global. The partnership was formally launched in August 2026, with the facility subsequently performing its first robotic-assisted procedures.
The tele-robotic operation also builds on earlier robotic surgery milestones involving Davies-Ekwenna and Nisa Premier Hospital. His professional profile records his involvement in Nigeria’s first robotic nephrectomy and the first robotic prostatectomy in Abuja using the Toumai robotic system.
Davies-Ekwenna is a Professor of Urology and Transplantation at the University of Toledo in Ohio, United States, where he has held senior academic and clinical roles. He is also a transplant and robotic surgeon and is associated with RoboMed Global, which is involved in expanding robotic surgery programmes in Africa.
His medical training includes urology residency and abdominal transplantation fellowship training at the University of Miami, while he earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine after studying biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of California, Berkeley. His professional credentials include Fellowship of the American College of Surgeons and certification by the American Board of Urology.
For the latest operation, medical teams were present in both Abuja and Ogun State to support the patient and the remote surgical procedure.
RHV Chief Executive Officer Dr Adedamola Dada said the partnership with RoboMed Global was intended to bring advanced surgical skills and technology closer to Nigerian patients and reduce the need for Nigerians to travel abroad for specialised treatment.
Davies-Ekwenna has also spoken about the importance of training local medical professionals to sustain robotic surgery in Nigeria. Plans associated with the initiative include developing a robotic surgery academy to train surgeons and other healthcare professionals.
The successful procedure demonstrates one of the potential applications of tele-surgery, in which telecommunications technology links a surgeon’s control system to robotic equipment located at a different hospital.
For Nigeria, the procedure represents a further expansion of robotic surgery beyond operations performed with the surgeon physically present in the same operating theatre. It also raises the possibility of connecting specialist surgeons with patients in locations where particular expertise may not otherwise be readily available.
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