Nigeria upgrades 3,000 PHCs, retrains 78,000 health workers – Official

Nigeria has upgraded about 3,000 primary healthcare centres (PHCs) and retrained over 78,000 frontline health workers as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the country’s primary healthcare system.

The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Muyi Aina, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during the agency’s first quarter 2026 media briefing.

Mr Aina said Nigeria’s primary healthcare system is entering a phase of consolidation and expansion, driven by ongoing reforms focused on infrastructure upgrades, workforce strengthening, increased financing, and tighter accountability mechanisms.

“This year 2026 is a year of consolidation, it’s a year of scaling up and ensuring that we get meaningful and measurable impact of the key reforms and initiatives,” he said.

Mr Aina said the revitalisation of PHCs remains one of the most visible aspects of the reforms, with thousands of facilities already upgraded.

“In the last two years thereabout that we started this, we have commenced work in over 4,113 PHCs,” he said.

He explained that the upgrades go beyond basic renovation, covering infrastructure quality and improved welfare conditions for health workers.

“The buildings are better quality, the roofs are there, security is there, and the vast majority of them have accommodation for health workers,” he said.

According to him, the reforms have also improved functionality across facilities nationwide.

“We have increased the functional level two PHCs by 59 per cent since March of 2026, when you compare to just two years ago when this journey actually started,” he said.

He added that more than half of Nigeria’s PHCs are now functional at different service levels.

“14,000 or more than half, that is 53 per cent of primary health centres in the country are now functional, either level two or level one,” he said.

Mr Aina said the agency has also prioritised access to basic amenities such as electricity, water and sanitation, which are critical to service delivery.

He noted that investments in solar power systems have been scaled up through government efforts and partnerships.

“Just recently, the Coordinating Minister of Health and ourselves were in Apo to take over and commission the latest 371 PHCs that were solarised across the country,” he said.

He added that water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services are also being expanded across facilities to ensure reliable access to water, power, and improved comfort in PHCs.

On human resources, Mr Aina said the reforms have prioritised retraining and expanding the capacity of frontline health workers.

He disclosed that 78,054 health workers have been retrained nationwide out of the 120,000 targeted.

“I am happy to tell you that of the 120,000 frontline health workers that Mr President asked us to retrain that are existing, we have now retrained over 78,000, 78,054 health workers across all 36 states and the FCT,” he said.

He explained that the training follows an integrated PHC curriculum designed to strengthen service delivery at facility level, covering all basic services provided at PHCs.

Mr Aina also said efforts are ongoing at state level to close staffing gaps through recruitment of skilled personnel and community-based health workers, noting that there were over 19,000 skilled health attendants and almost 4,000 community-based health workers as of the last record.

To improve access to training and reduce costs, he said the agency has introduced an e-learning platform for health workers, allowing frontline staff to access targeted online modules at their convenience.

He added that the training materials have been translated into Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo and Pidgin English to improve accessibility.

Mr Aina said improving service delivery also requires ensuring that facilities are properly equipped and supplied. He noted that the NPHCDA has directly equipped or procured equipment for 500 PHCs.

He added that additional support is being provided through state governments and development partners.

He also noted that the federal government has intervened to cushion the impact of rising drug costs by supplying essential medicines to primary healthcare centres.

“The president approved and gave substantial resources to buy the medicines that we need on a day-to-day basis and push them to the primary health centres,” he said.

He described the intervention as a “seed stock” aimed at stabilising drug availability at facility level.