Nigeria Records 45m Quarterly PHC Visits As Demand For Care Rises

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), has said that quarterly patient visits to primary healthcare facilities in the country have increased from 33 million to between 43 million and 45 million.

The development indicates increased utilisation of primary healthcare services as the Federal Government intensifies efforts to improve access to essential medical services, particularly in underserved communities.

The Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr Muyi Aina, disclosed this during the agency’s quarterly media briefing in Abuja.

Aina said the increase in patient contacts was accompanied by improvements in maternal healthcare utilisation, with quarterly first antenatal care visits rising from 1.6 million to 1.8 million.

He also disclosed that deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants increased from 483,000 in 2023 to approximately 700,000 in 2025.

According to him, the agency is working to strengthen primary healthcare delivery through infrastructure improvements, workforce development and expanded access to essential services.

Aina said the Federal Government had revitalised 4,434 primary healthcare centres nationwide, with 3,526 fully renovated, commissioned and handed over to state and local governments. Construction and refurbishment were continuing at 91 others.

The interventions include installing solar power systems, providing water and sanitation facilities, and supplying medical equipment to improve service delivery.

He said the Federal Government had directly equipped more than 500 centres, while state governments and development partners had supported additional facilities.

Despite the interventions, Aina said only 53 per cent of approximately 27,000 primary healthcare centres were functioning at Level One or Level Two.

He disclosed that the number of Level Two facilities had increased by more than 59 per cent since March 2024, when the agency began tracking progress.

The agency is targeting at least one Level Two primary healthcare facility in every ward, supported by an adequate number of Level One centres.

Aina stressed that sustaining the improvements required greater commitment from state and local governments, particularly in staffing, maintenance and operational funding.

“The National Primary Health Care Development Agency, as an arm of the Federal Ministry of Health, is responsible for the definition of primary healthcare, not for the delivery of primary healthcare,” he said.

He explained that state and local governments remained responsible for the day-to-day operation of the facilities, including ensuring that health workers were employed on a permanent basis.

To strengthen financing for primary healthcare services, Aina said the Federal Government had approved an additional N40 billion through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).

The funding is expected to support healthcare delivery, essential supplies, health security and emergency medical transportation.

According to him, facilities benefiting from the scheme served at least four times as many patients per facility as those not receiving the funds.

The agency is working to increase the number of participating facilities from 8,300 to 13,512.

Aina also disclosed that more than 78,000 frontline health workers had been retrained to improve the quality of primary healthcare services nationwide.

Meanwhile, the Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr Kelechi Ohiri, said the authority was expanding health insurance coverage to include app-based workers, delivery personnel, self-employed Nigerians and inmates in correctional facilities.

Ohiri said the number of Nigerians covered by health insurance had increased by 42 per cent, from approximately 16 million in January 2024 to 23.02 million.

Of the total, 3.18 million poor and vulnerable Nigerians had their insurance premiums paid by the government through the BHCPF.

He said the authority was working with relevant ministries and agencies to develop insurance arrangements for workers who lacked employers to pay their premiums.

Plans to enrol inmates in correctional facilities had also received approval from the Ministerial Oversight Committee.

Ohiri said the initiatives were part of efforts to widen access to affordable healthcare and reduce the financial burden of medical treatment on Nigerian households.