…Disburses ₦249.6bn to fund in three years
By Chidinma Chukwu, Abuja
The Federal Government is working with the National Assembly to increase the statutory allocation to the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) from one per cent to two per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), as part of efforts to expand access to essential healthcare services.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday during a ministerial press briefing on the fund’s implementation and reforms under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Salako said the proposed increase would be accompanied by expanded direct financing for healthcare facilities, with the government targeting at least 17,600 facilities.
He added that measures were being introduced to strengthen transparency, accountability and efficiency in the utilisation of the fund.
The minister said the government was also seeking to expand the fund’s scope to cover additional areas, including health research and health promotion, to strengthen domestic healthcare financing.
Providing an update on the fund’s performance, Salako said ₦422.3bn had been released under the BHCPF since its first disbursement in 2019, while ₦323.6bn had been disbursed as of September 2026.
He said ₦249.6bn, representing 77.1 per cent of the amount disbursed, was released during the first three years of the Tinubu administration.
“Since the first disbursement under the BHCPF in 2019, the total amount released under the fund stood at ₦422.3bn as of September 2026, out of which ₦323.6bn had been disbursed. Of this disbursement, ₦249.6bn, representing 77.1 per cent, was disbursed during the last three years of President Tinubu’s administration,” he said.
Salako added that following approval for the disbursement of an additional ₦40.7bn at the October meeting of the BHCPF Ministerial Oversight Committee (MOC), cumulative disbursements were expected to reach ₦364bn.
He said ₦290.2bn, representing 79.7 per cent of the projected total, would have been disbursed under the Tinubu administration.
The minister said the fund, established under the National Health Act 2014, remained central to the government’s efforts to strengthen primary healthcare, expand health insurance coverage and improve emergency medical services, particularly for poor and vulnerable Nigerians.
He explained that the administration had introduced updated implementation guidelines, performance-linked disbursements, direct financing for healthcare facilities and stricter accountability measures to ensure that public spending translated into improved services.
On health insurance, Salako said national enrolment increased from approximately 16.2 million people in 2023 to 23.06 million by the third quarter of 2026.
He added that 3,182,943 vulnerable Nigerians with National Identification Numbers had been identified as beneficiaries of health insurance coverage supported by the fund.
According to him, the BHCPF had also supported free vesicovaginal fistula surgeries and rehabilitation, emergency caesarean sections and other interventions benefiting 96,068 women and babies.
He said the oversight committee had equally approved health insurance coverage for approximately 90,000 Nigerians in correctional facilities.
On primary healthcare delivery, Salako disclosed that 8,309 primary healthcare centres across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory were receiving direct financing under the programme.
He said plans were underway to extend coverage to an additional 5,212 facilities, bringing the total to 13,521.
The minister added that the number of primary healthcare facilities meeting Level 2 readiness requirements rose from 1,748 in 2024 to 3,202 by the third quarter of 2026.
He said attendance at the facilities also increased from 34.55 million in 2023 to 43.06 million by the second quarter of 2026.
According to him, deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants increased by 63.6 per cent, while the number of eligible children under one year who received their first dose of the pentavalent vaccine rose by approximately 20 per cent.
On emergency medical services, Salako said operational management structures had been established in all 36 states and the FCT, while emergency transport and referral services were available in 171 of the 172 local government areas covered by the programme.
He disclosed that the system had recorded 160,571 emergency ambulance services since 2023, covering obstetric emergencies, neonatal and under-five emergencies, road traffic injuries, snakebites and other urgent medical conditions.
The government, he added, planned to expand coverage to 200 local government areas by December 2026.
Salako also highlighted the fund’s contribution to disease surveillance and outbreak response through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) Gateway, which provides resources to support states in preparing for and responding to public health emergencies.
He said the fund supported preparedness and response activities during outbreaks, citing reported cases of 8,379 Lassa fever, 70,947 cholera, 22,085 diphtheria and 760 mpox over the reporting period.
On healthcare workforce development, the minister said 70,054 frontline health workers had been trained under the national programme targeting 120,000 workers.
He added that the oversight committee had approved phased federal support for the salaries of 13,800 community-based health workers and skilled birth attendants.
According to Salako, President Tinubu had repeatedly emphasised that investments in health infrastructure and financing could not deliver better healthcare without adequate health workers.
He recalled that in August 2024, Tinubu, as African Union Champion for Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery Partnership, demonstrated his commitment to the national programme to retrain 120,000 frontline health workers.
“As of 2026, the programme had trained 70,054 health workers towards that target,” Salako said.
Under the salary-support arrangement, the Federal Government, through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), would cover 100 per cent of eligible salary costs in the first year, 67 per cent in the second year and 33 per cent in the third year.
The arrangement is intended to give state governments time to progressively absorb the workers into their payrolls.
Salako further disclosed that the committee had approved the operationalisation of Medipool as a procurement mechanism for essential medicines and health commodities financed through the BHCPF.
He said the arrangement would be subject to quality requirements, price benchmarks and value-for-money safeguards.
However, the minister urged state governments to fulfil their statutory obligations under the National Health Act by providing counterpart funding, strengthening oversight and ensuring sustained support for healthcare facilities and workers.
He cited Katsina State, which he said had recently released ₦240.79m to its health insurance agency to expand coverage.
Salako stressed that the Federal Government could not build a sustainable primary healthcare system without the active participation of state governments.
He added that the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare would continue to strengthen financial verification, reporting and monitoring of the fund’s utilisation.
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