NPHCDA Boss Says Nigeria Must Urgently Fix Primary Health Care System Through Stronger Facilities and Workforce
NPHCDA has warned that Nigeria’s primary health care system needs urgent nationwide improvement today.
Officials say stronger facilities, more workers, and wider vaccine access are vital for progress.
Nigeria must urgently strengthen its primary health care system by improving facilities, increasing the frontline workforce, and expanding vaccine access, according to the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Muyi Aina.
In an interview with Premium Times, Muyi Aina disclosed that the federal government is pushing major reforms because of the poor condition of many primary health centres nationwide.
Aina stated, “The PHC system had been neglected for a very long time, with no money invested in it and people were not being coordinated. This is the first time the government is working in a coordinated way to improve PHCs. So, we are moving as fast as we can to ensure we get PHCs to the most achievable standard.”
He explained that only a fraction of facilities were functional when the current leadership took over, noting that “when we came on board two years ago, only about one-fifth of those facilities met the criteria for being fully functional”, prompting a national rehabilitation effort that has so far upgraded about 1,640 centres in partnership with states and the World Bank.
Aina also highlighted ongoing efforts to close workforce gaps, revealing that several states have hired skilled birth attendants and that the federal government is retraining frontline workers. He said over 70,600 health workers have already been trained under the mandate to retrain 120,000.
On vaccine access, he said the agency is conducting targeted immunization campaigns, including the “Big Catch-up”, to reach zero-dose children. Aina stressed the urgency of local vaccine manufacturing, noting;
“I’m almost certain because we do not have a choice at this point. As the number of children is increasing, as our vaccine portfolio has expanded, the cost of buying and importing those vaccines is becoming more and more difficult for us to meet.”
He added that strengthening oversight and financial integrity is central to ongoing reforms and confirmed that ₦50.8 billion has been disbursed under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) in the last two years, with new systems being deployed to improve accountability.
Aina said the combined reforms are aimed at improving access to essential care and ensuring primary health centres can deliver services consistently across the country.
