The Federal Government has completed the review of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) operational guidelines and is preparing to begin the 2024 audit exercise by mid-July. This forms part of broader efforts to improve transparency and strengthen Nigeria’s primary healthcare financing system.
Secretary of the BHCPF Ministerial Oversight Committee (MOC), Dr. Oritseweyimi Ogbe made this known during the committee’s 11th meeting held in Abuja on Monday. While presenting an update from the secretariat, Ogbe announced that the revised BHCPF Guidelines (version 2.0) had received provisional approval during the first quarter MOC meeting. He said the updated guidelines would now be formally disseminated following consultations with the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Ali Pate.
Ogbe also revealed that financial audits for 2022 and 2023 had been concluded across all four gateways at both national and sub-national levels. He said a draft of the audit reports was expected soon from the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation, after which a close-out meeting would be held to finalise the process.
Since its establishment in 2019, the BHCPF has disbursed over ₦159.2 billion through various gateways to support primary healthcare delivery across Nigeria. However, the disbursements for the first and second quarters of 2025 are still pending. According to Ogbe, the delay is attributed to initial bottlenecks in the release of funds and adjustments in signatories under the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS).
He added that a memo was currently being prepared to address the disbursement backlog for 2025. The secretariat, he said, is also working closely with monitoring and evaluation units to align performance tracking with key indicators under the National Health Sector Reform Implementation Initiative (NHSRII).
To boost transparency and public engagement, the MOC Secretariat is collaborating with the ICT Department of the Federal Ministry of Health to establish a dedicated section for BHCPF updates on the ministry’s official website.
Immediate next steps include the finalisation and circulation of audit reports for 2022 and 2023, as well as improved tracking of performance-based metrics under the HOPE Primary Health Care Delivery Linked Indicators.
Established under the National Health Act, the BHCPF remains a critical funding mechanism for ensuring access to basic healthcare for Nigeria’s most vulnerable populations.
