FG invests N20bn to rehabilitate primary health centres in northern Nigeria
By Kunle Sanni –
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Ali Pate, says President Bola Tinubu’s administration has disbursed more than N20 billion to rehabilitate and upgrade 4,362 Primary Health Centres (PHCs).
He said the intervention covered facilities across the 19 northern states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) over the past two years.
The minister noted that the funding, released under the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF), has also had “similarly indelible impact” across the southern states.
Speaking at a briefing on the progress of the administration’s Sub-National Health Support Plan, Dr. Pate explained that the BHCPF — designed to draw at least one per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund alongside donor contributions — provides a Basic Minimum Package of Health Services aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s primary healthcare system.
According to him, nearly N50 billion has been disbursed to PHCs nationwide through the BHCPF from 2023 to date, resulting in what he described as “qualitative modernization of health infrastructure across all local government areas of Nigeria.”
“Under the compassionate and focused leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we are on course to break the record set in 2024 for annual health insurance enrollment at 2.4 million citizens,” Dr. Pate said.
He added that over 37 million visits to PHCs were recorded across the country in the first quarter of 2025 alone, reflecting what he described as “a data-driven re-engineering of basic healthcare provision for Africa’s largest population.”
