$500m W’Bank programme targets Nigeria’s health, education gaps

A $500m World Bank-backed programme is targeting gaps in Nigeria’s primary healthcare and basic education sectors through improved funding, budget planning, personnel recruitment and public financial management.

The HOPE Governance Programme, which is domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, is open to all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory and seeks to improve the management of financial and human resources in the two critical sectors.

The National Coordinator of the programme, Assad Hassan, disclosed this in Lagos on Tuesday during an implementation support mission involving the World Bank and participating states, explaining that the initiative was designed to complement existing interventions in healthcare and education.

He said the programme was part of broader efforts to improve service delivery, adding that its implementation would help states ensure that budgetary allocations translated into measurable improvements in the sectors.

“The HOPE Governance Programme is a $500m investment whose primary development objective is to improve the management of financial and human resources in primary healthcare and basic education across the country,” Hassan said.

He explained that while the HOPE Primary Healthcare and HOPE Basic Education programmes focused on service delivery, the governance component concentrated on improving public financial management, particularly budgeting, planning and execution.

“We are looking at ways to improve budgeting, budget planning and execution in the two sectors. Just recently, over four weeks, we trained about 388 officials from the 36 states and the FCT across the two sectors on proper budget planning and execution for the 2027 fiscal year,” he added.

Hassan said the programme was expected to ensure that every naira allocated to the sectors had a clear implementation plan and measurable outcomes.

“The overall aim is to ensure that every naira budgeted for these two sectors in each state has a realistic implementation pathway. This means that when you examine a state’s budget, you can clearly see not just what the state plans to spend but also what it intends to achieve.

“We also want to see instances where budgets are maximised, and implementation rates reach 80 per cent and above in these two sectors,” he said.

He added that the ultimate goal was to strengthen primary healthcare systems and improve basic education across the states.

The World Bank Senior Public Sector Specialist and HOPE Governance Programme Task Team Leader, Ikechukwu Nweje, said the intervention was also aimed at addressing shortages of teachers and healthcare workers, which he identified as major challenges affecting service delivery.

“The initial performance has not been as good as we expected. There have been minor issues here and there, which we are working to address. We hope that with implementation support, the next round of verification will produce much better results,” Nweje said.

He noted that shortages of teachers and healthcare personnel had contributed to challenges in basic education and primary healthcare, including maternal and child mortality and the number of out-of-school children.

“You cannot educate children when there are no teachers or when the available teachers are not properly qualified. Similarly, you cannot reduce maternal and child mortality without skilled birth attendants at primary healthcare centres,” he said.

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Speaking on Lagos State’s participation, the Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Ope George, who represented Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the state was using the programme to strengthen existing interventions in education and healthcare.

He said the initiative had impacted thousands of residents through the distribution of textbooks, improvements in primary healthcare and the provision of healthcare facilities.

George said the programme also complemented the state’s THEMES Plus Agenda and other initiatives implemented through various ministries and agencies.

“The HOPE Governance Programme is a programme we are very proud of in Lagos State. This event is an opportunity for us to assess our progress, not just as a state but alongside other states in the South-West,” he said.

He added that the periodic review would enable participating states to learn from one another and identify areas requiring improvement.

Similarly, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Olayinka Ojo, said the implementation of the programme had recorded progress in budget credibility, payroll verification and sectoral expenditure tracking.

However, he identified macroeconomic changes, difficulties with the verification of disbursement-linked indicators and operational bottlenecks among government agencies as challenges affecting implementation.

Ojo said the restructuring exercise was necessary to address the challenges and ensure that the programme’s targets reflected the realities facing participating states.

“This restructuring mission is therefore not a retreat from our commitments; it is an exercise in operational pragmatism and strategic consolidation. It provides the technical room to recalibrate results frameworks, refine verification protocols, and establish targets that are both ambitious and attainable within the implementation window,” he said.

He added that improved coordination among ministries of planning and finance, state universal basic education boards and primary healthcare development agencies was necessary to translate the reforms into better services for Nigerians.

The Ekiti State Focal Person for the programme and Director in charge of Multilateral Relations at the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Oloniyo Lawrence, said the intervention was critical to human capital development and the state’s economic future.

He said the Ekiti State Government had embraced the programme, adding that it was supporting recruitment in the education and healthcare sectors to ensure that its benefits reached communities.

Lawrence disclosed that the state had employed about 1,700 healthcare workers and approximately 1,000 teachers for basic education.

“These human resources are needed to teach children, administer drugs and provide maternal and neonatal healthcare services,” he said.