THE Federal Government disbursed a total of N32.88 billion under the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) in the first two quarters of 2025, with N16.44 billion released in each quarter, according to a Freedom of Information (FOI) response from the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
The ministry disclosed this in its November 13, 2025, response to an FOI request by Public & Private Development Centre(PPDC), seeking details of the third-round BHCPF disbursement for 2025.
Although the ministry had reportedly approved the third-quarter disbursement at the time of the response, it said the process was still being finalised as of November 13.
The BHCPF, established under Section 11 of the National Health Act 2014, is designed to strengthen access to basic healthcare by funding primary healthcare facilities and supporting health insurance, emergency response and other essential services.
The ministry said the quarterly N16.44 billion was distributed across the fund’s four gateways: the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Emergency Medical Treatment (EMT) and Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC).
Under the allocation formula contained in the response, 45 per cent of the fund goes through the NPHCDA gateway, 48.75 per cent through NHIA, five per cent through EMT and 1.25 per cent through NCDC.
8,309 health facilities received funding
The ministry said the NPHCDA had successfully disbursed funds to 8,309 validated BHCPF health facilities by August 2025.
Under the guideline used for the first and second quarters, each of the facilities reportedly received N300,750 per quarter through the NPHCDA gateway.
Based on the ministry’s stated amount, the direct facility-level allocation implied by the N300,750 payment to 8,309 facilities was about N2.50 billion per quarter, or approximately N5 billion across Q1 and Q2.
The official NPHCDA list supplied with the ministry’s response contains 8,309 validated facilities across the country and records their functionality status, with some facilities listed as fully functional and others as partially functional.
Revised funding increases facility allocation
Meanwhile, the ministry said the funding arrangement would be changed in the third quarter following the introduction of a revised BHCPF guideline unveiled on October 22, 2025.
Under the revised arrangement, the Direct Facility Financing (DFF) for primary healthcare facilities is now tied to workload.
The ministry said facilities with higher workloads would receive N800,000 per quarter, while lower-workload facilities would receive N600,000 per quarter.
The revised guideline also provides for the onboarding of an additional 5,212 primary healthcare facilities under the NPHCDA gateway.
The ministry said participating facilities would be required to submit expenditure reports through the Local Government Health Authority and State Primary Health Care Board before receiving funding for the next quarter.
Funding amid functionality gaps
An analysis of the NPHCDA’s 8,309-facility list shows that 1,164 facilities, representing 14 per cent of the listed beneficiaries, were classified as ‘partially functional.’ The calculation is based on the functionality status recorded for each facility in the official list.
The list covers 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. It identified facilities as Functional L1, Functional L2, Partially Functional or Non-functional.
The 1,164 partially functional facilities amount to roughly one in every seven facilities on the official BHCPF beneficiary list.
Sokoto had 107 partially functional facilities out of 244, representing 43.9 per cent of its listed BHCPF facilities. Zamfara had 54 out of 139 (38.8 per cent), while Katsina recorded 133 out of 350 (38 per cent).
Akwa Ibom had 109 partially functional facilities out of 316 (34.5 per cent), while Kano had 123 out of 493 (24.9 per cent).
By comparison, Ogun had 16 partially functional facilities out of 227, representing seven per cent.
Although, The ICIR could not explicitly state the main reasons while they were classified as partially functional, the figures raise questions about the extent to which BHCPF financing and other governments financing are translating into improved capacity at the facilities receiving the funds.
Mustapha Usman is an investigative journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: musman@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M