RAll 36 states of the federation collectively raised their health sector budgets to ₦2.36 trillion in the 2025 fiscal year, marking the highest sub-national health investment in Nigeria’s history.
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum,NGF, and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, announced the figure on Friday in Abuja at the third edition of the Primary HealthCare,PHC, Leadership Challenge Awards Night.
Speaking through the Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, AbdulRazaq said the 2025 allocation represented a sharp rise from previous years, with 30 per cent of the total health budgets dedicated specifically to primary health care.
He traced the steady growth in states’ health spending from ₦831 billion in 2022 to ₦927 billion in 2023, ₦1.4 trillion in 2024 and now ₦2.36 trillion in 2025, describing the trend as evidence of deliberate leadership and improved accountability among governors.
AbdulRazaq said the PHC Leadership Challenge had shown that intentional governance could deliver measurable and transformative outcomes, noting that increased funding had driven infrastructural upgrades in PHC facilities and boosted recruitment of health workers across states.
He added that early gains from the investments were already visible, citing reductions in institutional maternal mortality rates nationwide.
To strengthen accountability, the NGF chairman said the forum had introduced scorecards to monitor states’ commitments to key health initiatives.
He disclosed that a more expansive scorecard tracking sub-national commitments under the Health Sector Renewal Compact would be launched in 2026.
Looking ahead, AbdulRazaq reaffirmed governors’ commitment to the Seattle Declaration, stressing that access to quality primary health care must be guaranteed for every Nigerian, regardless of location or circumstance.
He also acknowledged the contributions of development partners, including the Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the World Health Organisation and the World Bank, to advancing PHC and universal health coverage in Nigeria.
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In a separate address, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Muyi Aina, highlighted progress achieved through collaboration with state governments.
Aina said 2,127 PHC facilities had been revitalised nationwide, with rehabilitation ongoing in another 1,671 centres. He added that essential health commodities had been distributed to at least one PHC facility in each of Nigeria’s 774 local government areas.
He further disclosed that under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund Reforms (BHCPF 2.0), ₦52.5 billion had been disbursed to 8,309 PHCs since 2023, including ₦14.01 billion released in the first half of 2025.
Despite the gains, Aina urged states that were yet to recruit skilled birth attendants and community-based health workers to accelerate the process.
He also cautioned governors to plan for sustainability, noting that funding support from the Gates Foundation for the leadership challenge would end in 2026.
He called on states to take full ownership of the initiative by mobilising domestic resources and partnering with other stakeholders to sustain progress.
Aina congratulated states that emerged winners at the awards ceremony and encouraged others to intensify efforts, while advising award recipients not to become complacent.
Also speaking, Deputy Director for Health Systems Strengthening at the Gates Foundation, Dr Nkata Chuku, said the foundation remained aligned with the Federal Government’s drive to revitalise primary health care.
He disclosed that the foundation had invested 27 million dollars over the past four years to support the PHC Leadership Challenge, explaining that the performance-based awards reinforced peer accountability among governors.
Chuku urged state leaders to sustain the momentum that had driven the recent improvements in Nigeria’s primary health care system.
NAN
