The World Bank has approved $27 million in performance-based incentives for Nigerian states under the HOPE Governance Programme, with Bayelsa, Borno, Kano, Kebbi and Yobe receiving the largest rewards for education and healthcare reforms. The announcement was made on Tuesday in Abuja by the National Coordinator of the HOPE Governance Programme, Assad Hassan, during a retreat attended by commissioners, permanent secretaries and directors of budget and planning from all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Five states take the biggest reward
Bayelsa, Borno, Kano, Kebbi and Yobe each qualified for $1.5 million under Disbursement-Linked Result (DLR) 2.1, which measures whether states adopted comprehensive guidelines for preparing and submitting consolidated work plans for basic education budgets. The same five states also met the requirements for DLR 2.2, earning another $1.5 million each for adopting similar guidelines for primary healthcare budgets. That means each of the five states will receive $3 million, bringing the combined payout for the group to $15 million.
More states also qualified
Under DLR 2.3, which focuses on adopting harmonised budget guidelines and a chart of accounts for local governments, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Gombe, Kano, Plateau, Taraba and Yobe each qualified for $500,000. Another set of states also earned rewards under DLR 4.1, which assessed whether they published their 2025 Citizens Budget for basic education and primary healthcare before the deadline. The qualifying states are Abia, Bayelsa, Borno, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ondo, Plateau and Yobe, with each receiving $500,000.
Why some states missed out
Hassan explained that not every state qualified because many failed to meet the programme's requirements or missed important deadlines. He said: "The incentives are based on the findings and recommendations of the Interim Independent Verification Agent, which carried out a rigorous assessment of states' performances against the Year Zero Disbursement-Linked Indicators. For DLR 2.1 and DLR 2.2, Bayelsa, Borno, Kano, Kebbi and Yobe states met all the requirements and are therefore eligible to receive $1.5 million each for both indicators. For DLR 2.3, nine states successfully adopted harmonised budget guidelines and a chart of accounts for local governments and will receive $500,000 each. Also, under DLR 4.1, 15 states met the conditions relating to the publication of the Financial Year 2025 Citizens Budget for basic education and primary healthcare and will equally receive $500,000 each." He added: "Other participating states were not eligible for the incentives because they either published the required guidelines after the March 31, 2025 deadline, failed to meet most of the stipulated criteria, or did not publish the required results on their official state websites."
Weak coordination affected many states
According to Hassan, one major issue identified during the assessment was poor coordination among government agencies in several states. He said: "One of the key challenges observed is the inability of many states to establish effective institutional coordination mechanisms. This has undermined institutional ownership of the reforms and threatens their sustainability. States need to strengthen coordination among ministries, departments and agencies to ensure that these reforms are not treated as one-off activities but become institutionalised governance practices." He also revealed that the second phase of verification for the Year Zero results should be completed by July 2026, while a new capacity-building plan has already started to help states improve their performance going forward. According to him: "The programme has commenced preparations for the implementation of a robust capacity-building action plan that will provide hands-on technical support to states. The objective is to help states improve their systems and successfully achieve subsequent programme results."
What is the HOPE Governance Programme?
The HOPE Governance Programme is a $500 million World Bank-supported initiative designed to improve how funds are managed and spent in Nigeria's basic education and primary healthcare sectors. The programme promotes transparency, accountability and better budgeting while also supporting the recruitment, deployment and management of teachers and primary healthcare workers across the country. The latest $27 million reward marks one of the programme's first major rounds of performance-based funding, with states that delivered on agreed reforms getting rewarded financially.
