The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has outlined major reforms aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s primary healthcare system, expanding immunization coverage and reaching zero-dose children across the country.
The Executive Director and CEO of the NPHCDA, Dr Muyi Aina, announced the reforms during the agency’s quarterly media briefing on Tuesday in Abuja.
Aina highlighted ongoing efforts to reduce preventable maternal and newborn deaths, improve PHC functionality and expand digital health systems nationwide.
He said the agency’s goal was to ensure at least 17,600 fully functional primary health centres (PHCs) out of more than 30,000 centres across the country.
“These centres must be equipped, staffed, and capable of delivering essential services, especially for women and children,” he said.
To reduce operational bottlenecks, he explained that the Federal Government had expanded the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), allowing PHCs to receive funding directly every quarter.
“Low-volume facilities now receive ₦600,000 per quarter, while high-volume centres receive ₦800,000.
A full list of beneficiary PHCs will be published by January 2026 to promote transparency,” he stated.
Aina said Nigeria had an estimated 2.1 million zero-dose children—those who had not received any vaccine by their first birthday.
To address this, the agency introduced the Identify, Enumerate, Vaccinate (IEV) strategy.
He said that between July 2024 and October 2025, more than 500,000 zero-dose children were reached through house-to-house mobilization and targeted campaigns.
He added that integrated campaigns now deliver multiple interventions—including polio, measles, HPV and malaria prevention—to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Aina also revealed that the agency was rolling out digital health records, real-time PHC dashboards and multilingual e-learning platforms in English, Pidgin, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. An electronic financial management system is also being deployed to strengthen accountability.
“So far, more than 70,000 frontline health workers have been trained and 27,000 community-based workers recruited, with states signing MOUs to absorb them permanently,” he said.
During the briefing, Aina addressed issues relating to maternal mortality, immunization gaps, diphtheria outbreaks, hard-to-reach populations, financial transparency and HPV vaccination.
Responding to reports of 20,000 maternal and newborn deaths in 2025, he said he was unsure of the data source but acknowledged the scale of avoidable deaths.
“What I can agree with is that we’ve had too many unjustified deaths.
That is why the President prioritized reducing maternal and newborn mortality under the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative,” he said.
He noted that direct PHC funding, community health worker recruitment, home visits and the MAMI intervention were all targeted at addressing the major drivers of maternal and child deaths, including vaccine-preventable diseases.
PHC services, he added, were now being expanded to cover mental health and non-communicable diseases.
Addressing the ongoing diphtheria outbreaks, Aina said that more than 8,000 cases and 800 deaths had been recorded, citing the 2023 NDHS survey which showed Penta-3 coverage at 53 per cent.
“If 53 per cent received the vaccine, 47 per cent did not.
They are susceptible, which explains ongoing outbreaks,” he said.
While the Federal Government procures vaccines, Aina stressed that states and local governments are responsible for delivery, urging the media to hold subnational governments accountable.
He described hard-to-reach areas as riverine, mountainous, remote or insecurity-prone communities that often overlap with zero-dose and maternal mortality hotspots.
Under the IEV framework, the agency has identified 7.4 million residents across priority states, he said.
Aina also highlighted the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, which promotes unified planning and coordinated budgeting among federal, state and partner agencies to minimize overlap and waste.
Providing clarification on the BHCPF, he said 8,309 PHCs currently benefit from the fund, with 13,512 more to be included by year-end after verification. Another 5,212 facilities are being processed for qualification.
He said revitalization assessments consider building integrity, staffing, equipment, power supply and medicine availability.
“If you equip a centre without health workers, it will be abandoned.
If you put equipment in a building without a door, it will be looted,” he said.
He added that performance and financial management officers now visit PHCs monthly and that a digital financial management app had been launched.
An MOU with security and anti-corruption agencies, he noted, supports accountability.
Facilities must account for previously received funds before new disbursements are made, he added.
Aina announced that the HPV vaccination programme had reached more than 15 million girls aged 9–14, surpassing the initial target of 13 million, with the campaign continuing as new cohorts become eligible.
Citing NDHS data, he said 172 LGAs across 33 states account for more than half of maternal deaths nationwide. The MAMI intervention, he added, has now expanded to nearly all states.
On the issue of zero-dose children, he stressed:
“These are not ghosts. They are children. We know where they are, we know their mothers, and we are removing barriers one by one.”
Aina reaffirmed the NPHCDA’s commitment to strengthening primary healthcare, improving immunization uptake, expanding digital systems and ensuring accountability at all levels.
He said transparency, community trust and media collaboration remain central to Nigeria’s health transformation agenda.
