The Tinubu led Government, in partnership with the World Bank, has begun the implementation of a $500 million Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity–Governance (HOPE-GOV) Programme, aimed at strengthening financial and human resource management in basic education and primary healthcare across the country.
Assad Hassan, who is the National Coordinator of the HOPE-Governance Programme has confirmed the commencement on Tuesday in Abuja while briefing the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, Deborah Odoh, where the programme is domiciled.
In a statement issued by Joe Mutah, the programme’s Communications Officer stated that the intervention was designed to address long-standing governance gaps in the education and health sectors, particularly at the sub-national level.
Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children globally, while primary healthcare centres across many states remain understaffed, underfunded and poorly equipped, challenges that have been compounded by weak public financial management systems at the sub-national level.
Hassan also acknowledged the World Bank-assisted facility is structured into two components, a Programme-for-Results and an Investment Project Financing window.
He further explained that $480 million of the funding would be used to incentivise states to meet clearly defined Disbursement-Linked Results in basic education and primary healthcare, while the remaining $20 million would support programme coordination, independent verification of results, monitoring and evaluation, and technical assistance.
“In terms of programmme financing and scope, it’s a World Bank-assisted credit of $500 million, which is split into two components. One is the Programme for Results while the second is Investment Project Financing.
“$480 million is earmarked to incentivise the States to achieve the Disbursement Linked Results in the two sectors, while the $20 million Investment Project Financing component has three key areas for implementation.
“One is programme coordination, the second is verification of results at the state level as well as monitoring and evaluation and the third is technical assistance for implementing agencies i.e. the states, UBEC, Ministerial Oversight Committee of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, and the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning,” Hassan said.
He listed the implementing institutions to include state governments, the Universal Basic Education Commission, the Ministerial Oversight Committee of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
Mr Hassan identified three core focus areas of the HOPE-GOV Programme as increased financing for basic education and primary healthcare, improved transparency and accountability in budgeting and audits, and enhanced recruitment and retention of teachers and primary healthcare workers.
For HOPE-Governance, our primary objective is to see how we improve financial and human resource management in these two sectors by focusing on three key areas: the first is an increase in funding for the two sectors.
“In this regard, we are working with the Universal Basic Education Commission as well as the Ministerial Oversight Committee, Basic Health Care Provision Fund in the Federal Ministry of Health and their counterparts at the state level.
“Then the second key area is enhance transparency and accountability in the budget for both sectors, the audit report, and the citizens’ format budget. Basically is about public financial management in the two sectors.
Despite statutory funding mechanisms such as the Universal Basic Education Fund and the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, many states have struggled to access available resources due to counterpart funding gaps, weak planning, delayed audits and poor reporting systems.
The reason why the Government designed the HOPE-GOV Programme is to reward performance rather than promises, linking financing directly to verifiable results and encouraging states to reinvest incentives into subsequent reforms.
