The Federal Government has said it approved the disbursement of N32.8 billion from the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to support primary healthcare programmes in the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year.
The funds will be shared through the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), and the National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System (NEMSAS).
This comes as the Federal Government prepares to approve a new set of governance guidelines for the BHCPF.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, announced this yesterday in Abuja at the 10th BHCPF Ministerial Oversight Committee (MOC) meeting.
The minister reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening the nation’s healthcare system.
Members of the committee, chaired by the coordinating minister, included the Chairman of the Nigeria Health Commissioners’ Forum and Ekiti State Commissioner of Health and Human Services, Oyebanji Filani; heads of the NHIA, the NCDC, NPHCDA, and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) representative, among others.
Pate said N32.8 billion had been allocated to strengthen over 8,000 primary healthcare centres nationwide.
The minister promised that the funds would support the expansion of primary healthcare services, the Vulnerable Groups Fund, emergency medical treatment and ambulance services, and the NCDC’s disease outbreak prevention and response efforts.
He said: “We have to ensure health security by preventing outbreaks, detecting them, and being able to respond to them. That is the approval.
“The second approval was that of the revised guideline for the BHCPF, which is provided for by law.
“While we’re waiting for a legal opinion from the Attorney General of the Federation, the MOC agreed with the thrust of the changes that were made in the guidelines, and those are very good steps forward, which has brought in the lens of equity and has also increased the resources going to primary health care centres. “