World Bank urges Nigeria to maintain healthcare gains from IMPACT project

The World Bank urged Nigerian state governments to take ownership of health investments to protect progress made in child survival and malaria prevention.

Matthew Verghis, the World Bank Country Representative, shared this advice during a forum for the IMPACT project. He stated that the project proved the value of investing in primary healthcare but warned that results depend on governments maintaining facilities, paying health workers, and providing steady funding.

The IMPACT project helped lower under-five mortality from 132 to 110 deaths per 1,000 live births. It also reduced malaria prevalence among children under five from 22 per cent to 15 per cent. Additionally, the proportion of fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 23 months rose from 31 per cent to 39.7 per cent. Quality-of-care scores in supported facilities increased from 39.3 per cent to 50.2 per cent.

To achieve these results, the project upgraded more than 2,600 primary healthcare facilities to Level Two standards with solar power and medical equipment. It distributed over 10 million insecticidal nets and spent approximately $170 million on routine vaccine procurement. The project also hired more than 15,000 health workers who were then absorbed by state governments and equipped over 6,000 facilities with laptops for digital data reporting.

Muyi Aina, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, noted that the project funded more than 200 million vaccine doses and 3,000 solar-powered refrigerators. He highlighted that 16.6 million children have now been fully immunised. The World Bank representative noted that the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and the HOPE-PHC programme will provide the framework to continue these improvements.