Bola Tinubu
The Federal Government has reduced donor-funded technical assistance and programme management costs in the health sector from 61 per cent in 2024 to 23.8 per cent in 2025 under its new Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp).
The reform represents a decisive shift from overhead-heavy programming toward frontline service delivery and provision of essential commodities, aiming to ensure development partner resources directly improve maternal, child, and primary healthcare services.
Dr. Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, National Coordinator of the National Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII), disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Friday in Abuja while outlining progress under the initiative.
He said the reduction reflected a deliberate restructuring of how development partner funds were coordinated, pooled, and deployed within the health system, prioritising tangible health outcomes over administrative overheads.
Umar-Sadiq explained that the SWAp model moved Nigeria away from fragmented, overhead-heavy programmes toward aligned investments that directly supported commodities, service delivery, and measurable health improvements.
“More than 10 development partners, including the World Bank, Gates Foundation, Global Financing Facility (GFF), and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF), are now aligned under pooled and coordinated financing mechanisms.
“Other partners include the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which now operate under unified planning and financing frameworks within the SWAp model.”
He added that the framework had mobilised more than one billion dollars through pooled financing channels and mapped 4.4 billion dollars in projected health resources for 2026–2028.
Umar-Sadiq noted that approximately 47 per cent of projected financing came from development partners, marking a clear improvement in visibility and alignment of partner contributions.
“Before the SWAp reforms, significant portions of donor funding were absorbed by parallel technical assistance structures, project management units, and duplicative administrative systems.
“Reducing management and overhead costs from 61 per cent to 23.8 per cent represents a concrete reduction in duplication. More resources are now flowing directly to commodities and frontline services,” he said.
He acknowledged that sector-wide reform was complex but said Nigeria was embedding rigorous measurement, independent verification, strategic alignment, clear consequences, and performance-based incentives previously lacking in the health system. (NAN)
