Primary Health Center in Kano, Nigeria, Secures Federal Funding for Poor and Vulnerable Patients

Throughout 2023, the USAID Local Health System Sustainability Project (LHSS) has worked in Nigeria’s Kano State to improve implementation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), a federal government program to improve the accessibility and quality of health care services, especially for poor and vulnerable populations. One of the major issues is that health centers serving these individuals have not regularly received the funds, which are intended to flow from the federal level to states, and finally to primary health care centers. 

LHSS is part of a wider network of USAID programs in Kano, which is why the U.S. Embassy chose this state for a September 2023 visit by a high-level delegation including the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, the U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator, the Global Fund Executive Director, and Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare. The delegation met with state leaders to better understand how U.S. government investments have improved the lives of Nigerians. 

Among the health facilities they visited was the Madatai Primary Health Clinic, which is supported by LHSS. This center is one of 103 primary health care facilities in Kano that were recently accredited to receive money from the Basic Health Care Provision Fund. But like all the other recently accredited centers in Kano, the Madatai clinic had not yet received any funds through the BHCPF program. 

The LHSS team in Nigeria realized that the official visit by national leaders and international ambassadors for primary health care was an ideal opportunity to advocate for the release of the federal funds. LHSS worked with the Kano State Primary Healthcare Management Board and Kano State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency to expedite the disbursement process by resolving operational bottlenecks and facilitating the interagency collaboration needed for the release of the BHCPF funds to the Madatai clinic.  

The effort resulted in the Madatai health care clinic receiving BHCPF funds for the first time. Five days before the delegation’s visit, the BHCPF direct-facility-financing (DFF) payments for the previous two quarters and a capitation payment -- based on the number of BHCPF enrollees assigned to the Madatai clinic -- for the most recent quarter were disbursed. The clinic will use the DFF funds to cover operational expenses, such as procuring essential drugs and commodities, paying midwives, and performing minor infrastructure upgrades. Meanwhile, the capitation payment covers 241 new enrollees, including people living with HIV.  

Asiya Nasidi, the Madatai center’s officer-in-charge, expressed appreciation to the government for the release of the funds. “Now that we have received the gateway funds, I call on the LHSS Project to support us in the implementation of the BHCPF program in our facility,” she said.  

And thanks to the just-in-time issuance of the funds, the official delegation was able to hear from Ms. Nasidi how the payments would be used to improve health care service delivery for the center’s most vulnerable patients.