By Ojoma Akor
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate has said 84% of national health performance indicators under the presidential health reform commitments have been achieved as of the third quarter of 2025.
He disclosed this during the ministerial press briefing, ahead of the joint annual review (JAR) for 2025 and the National Council on Health.
He said this represents achievements of 37 out of 41 key performance indicators (KPIs) of the health sector indicators.
He said, “We have been reporting progress, of course, for the last two years in terms of the presidential bond commitments quarterly. As of where we are, I think 37 out of 41 KPIs of the health sector have been reached.”
The minister said that there is also for the first time, an alignment between the federal government’s direction and the states in terms of the priorities in the annual operational plans. Seventy-two percent of states have established functional non-communicable disease coordination mechanisms, he said.
He highlighted that 35 out of 36 states, plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have conducted their own state joint annual reviews, and their own state performance dialogue with citizens’ participation in sector decision-making.
“So we are seeing the states also adopting this approach to performance management. A hundred percent of states have their annual operational plans that align with the priorities of the health sector blueprint and the health sector renewal investment initiative,” he said.
Prof Pate said there have been improvements in key maternal and reproductive health indicators in 2025, including the first antenatal care and the fourth antenatal care, skilled birth attendance, facility deliveries, and family planning services, adding, ” So despite the challenging time that we have in this country, at least from the data that we are seeing, the collective effort of states, local governments, the private sector, civil society, federal government, all of us, is translating into results, increases in key maternal and reproductive health indicators in 2025.”
On primary health care utilization, he said the general attendance in Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) facilities has also increased, 37 million in the first quarter of 2025, 45 million in the second quarter of 2025, compared to only 10 million in the first quarter of 2024.
According to him, that is almost a fourfold increase in utilization. This is based on the data that was collected.
He said there is a 17% reduction in maternal deaths and 12 % reduction in newborn deaths in the identified 172 local governments, which accounted for more than half the maternal deaths in Nigeria.
He said, “And the percentage of 172 local governments with at least two level two facilities is 52%. The total number of facilities revitalized in those 172 local governments is now 435. More than 15,000 community-based health workers have been recruited across the priority states in those local governments.”
He said that based on the percentage of respondents from a survey conducted, who are confident in the government’s capacity to effectively manage health emergencies, has gone from about half to two-thirds of Nigeria’s population based on this tool, which is survey tool.
The minister also stated that there is a need to do more in terms of ensuring that citizens are able to afford the increase in access that came out last year.
While announcing that the joint annual review commences the next day, he said the 2025 joint annual review will assess the health sector performance on the key indicators and feature the signing of an updated compact with an addendum to include local government areas.
“Because when we signed the first compact, that was before the major decision in terms of the role of local governments in our own fiscal federalism,” he added.
