The Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN), in a major collaborative effort with the MTN Foundation, has spearheaded a crucial multi-stakeholder meeting aimed at accelerating the sustainable revitalization of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across the country. The high-level co-creation session, held on 17 January 2026, sought to refine the strategic framework for scaling up this critical health infrastructure initiative.
Building on Phase One Success and Lessons
The gathering brought together a powerful coalition from government, the private sector, development partners, and international bodies. Key participants included the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). Central to the discussions was reviewing the progress of the What Can We Do Together (WCWDT) initiative's first phase, which successfully revitalized 49 PHCs across 33 states in Nigeria.
Stakeholders unanimously emphasized that the WCWDT program is not merely an infrastructure project. It is fundamentally a health systems strengthening intervention designed to improve service readiness, quality of care, and ensure long-term facility functionality. The dialogue focused on consolidating lessons to design a more robust, performance-driven approach for phase two.
Addressing Critical Challenges for Sustainability
During the meeting, the MTN Foundation outlined its community-driven model for selecting and deploying resources to PHCs. However, it also candidly acknowledged significant hurdles threatening sustainability. These challenges include inflation and exchange rate volatility, insecurity in hard-to-reach areas, and critical post-handover maintenance gaps often linked to weak operational systems at the local level.
PSHAN contributed evidence-based insights from facility assessments, pinpointing specific gaps such as shortages of skilled health workers and the absence of staff accommodation in some revitalized centers. These revelations reinforced the urgent need for enhanced monitoring and evaluation, improved uptake of health insurance schemes, and fostering deeper ownership by both communities and government to guarantee uninterrupted services.
Charting the Path Forward: Alignment and Technical Guidance
The path to a scalable model requires strong institutional frameworks. The NPHCDA presented the national blueprint for Level 2 PHC revitalization, stressing its alignment with the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF). The agency underscored the non-negotiable importance of supportive supervision and sustained government engagement at state and local levels.
Concrete next steps agreed upon by stakeholders include:
- Institutionalising robust performance management systems.
- Strengthening quality assurance mechanisms at the facility level.
- Improving coordination and information sharing among all partners.
- Conducting a comprehensive impact evaluation to assess value for money and tangible health outcomes.
The WHO provided overarching technical guidance on health systems strengthening, covering essential areas like leadership and governance, supply of essential medicines, integration of digital health tools, and bolstering health security preparedness.
This multi-stakeholder effort marks a pivotal shift from isolated projects to a coordinated, system-wide strategy, aiming to ensure that revitalized PHCs become permanent, high-quality pillars of Nigeria's healthcare delivery.
