By Muhammad Amaan
Nigeria has secured a $500 million World Bank-backed programme to close persistent gaps in primary healthcare and basic education through better funding, planning, recruitment and financial management.
The HOPE Governance Programme, domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, covers all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. It is designed to strengthen how financial and human resources are managed in the two sectors.
Speaking in Lagos on Tuesday during an implementation support mission involving the World Bank and participating states, the National Coordinator of the programme, Assad Hassan, said the initiative complements existing interventions in healthcare and education.
According to him, the programme will help states ensure that budgetary allocations translate into visible improvements in service delivery.
“The HOPE Governance Programme is a $500 million 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 focus on service delivery, the governance component focuses on public financial management, especially 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 said.
Hassan said the programme is expected to ensure that every naira allocated to the sectors has a clear implementation plan and measurable results.
“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 added.
He said the ultimate goal is to strengthen primary healthcare systems and improve basic education across the states.
Also speaking, the World Bank Senior Public Sector Specialist and HOPE Governance Programme Task Team Leader, Ikechukwu Nweje, said the intervention would also address the shortage of teachers and healthcare workers, which remains a major drag on 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 the shortage of teachers and health personnel had worsened challenges in basic education and primary healthcare, including maternal and child mortality and the rising number of out-of-school children.
