Insights from WHA79 on Nigeria's Health Changes

The seventy-ninth World Health Assembly ended in Geneva on 23 May. This meeting may be remembered more for how it viewed health than for its resolutions. Discussions included financing, antimicrobial resistance, workforce movement, emergency preparedness, and universal health coverage. Health was framed as an issue tied to economic policy, industrial growth, national security, and social strength.

During the Assembly, the WHO Strategy on the Economics of Health for All 2026, 2030 was adopted. An updated Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance was also approved. Changes were made to the WHO Global Code on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. These decisions highlighted sustainable financing, One Health action, ethical recruitment, and co-investment, showing a broader view of health as key to development.

Nigeria has already included these ideas in its health reforms. This includes national ownership, proper planning, stronger primary healthcare, local financing, local manufacturing, workforce growth, digital systems, regulatory strength, community involvement, and emergency readiness.

This path was set on 12 December 2023. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu launched the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative. He also secured the Health Renewal Compact with the Federal Government, all thirty-six states, the Federal Capital Territory, and development partners. This initiative, through the Sector-Wide Approach, replaced scattered programs with common goals, joint implementation, and clear accountability. The Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain extended this approach into manufacturing, investment, regulation, research, and supply security. Under Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, these presidential goals have become a national reform program.

This framework brings together governments, public institutions, development partners, and private companies around shared goals. It also connects to WHA79’s decision for a Member State-led, WHO-hosted reform of global health, which has suffered from fragmentation and poor alignment with country needs. Nigeria showcased its experience with one plan, one budget, and one reporting system. All thirty-six governors and development partners were aligned to national goals. This experience supported Nigeria's call for country ownership and fair African representation.

Public Health at Local Level

The real value of national reform happens away from the conference room. It is in clinics where women seek antenatal care. It is in communities where children need vaccinations. It is in homes deciding whether they can afford treatment. Nigeria’s reform program is beginning to show real benefits in these areas.

Across Nigeria, more than 4,100 primary healthcare centers are being revitalized. Over 3,100 of these are already completed. What matters is what these working centers can provide: earlier diagnosis, safer deliveries, routine immunizations, and reliable care close to home.

Financial protection is also improving. More than six million Nigerians got health insurance between 2023 and 2025. The Federal Government funded over 40,000 caesarean sections, allowing women access to life-saving care they might not afford otherwise. This aligns with WHA79’s new strategy for integrated emergency, critical, and operative care.

Infrastructure alone cannot provide care. More than 78,000 frontline health workers have been trained, with a goal of 120,000. Recruitment is increasing. Essential medicines, maternal and newborn supplies, reproductive-health equipment, and cold-chain facilities have been rolled out across the country. These investments may not grab headlines like new hospitals, but they often decide whether a facility can actually deliver care.

Nigeria’s responses to outbreaks also show its public health capacity. It was the first African country to use the mpox vaccine. It has also mounted large vaccination campaigns against cholera and meningitis. Annual visits to health facilities rose from 34.5 million in 2023 to 43 million in 2025. There were also gains in antenatal care, skilled birth attendance, and routine immunizations.

Serious challenges remain. Maternal and child deaths are still too high. There are inequalities between states, and many communities lack reliable access to quality care. The real test is whether a country has the direction and tools to tackle these issues at scale. On this measure, Nigeria’s reforms deserve more recognition.

Nigeria’s Leadership on Antimicrobial Resistance

WHA79’s updated plan on antimicrobial resistance sees it as a threat to human health, animal health, agriculture, food systems, and the environment. Its prevention-first approach links laboratories, surveillance, infection control, vaccination, water and sanitation, responsible prescribing, and access to quality medicines in a single One Health framework.

Nigeria has begun to assemble these elements through its Second One Health National Action Plan on AMR 2024, 2028, NHSRII, SWAp arrangements, regulatory reforms, investments in diagnostics and labs, and local production of health goods. It views AMR as a health-system and governance issue, not just a question of antibiotic use.

A New Compact on Health-Worker Movement

The National Policy on Health Workforce Migration, approved in 2024, sees mobility as a governance issue influenced by global demand, pay differences, training capacity, and professional rights.

The updated WHO Code encourages joint investment to benefit both source and destination countries. Countries that benefit from Nigerian-trained professionals should engage in partnerships for education, specialist training, institutional growth, and workforce expansion. International mobility cannot be fair if the systems creating health workers are weakened by the labor markets that rely on them.

Leadership from Every LGA

The National Health Fellowship recruited one young fellow from each of the 774 local government areas. These fellows have carried out over 1,500 community projects. This links national reform with local knowledge, public service, and leadership development.

Traditional and religious leaders are also taking a bigger role in public health policy. Topics like vaccination, maternal health, nutrition, antimicrobial use, and outbreak responses are shaped at the family, community, and congregation levels. Trusted social institutions influence behavior, encourage service uptake, and ensure accountability. Their formal inclusion, alongside local governments, civil society, and the private sector, has expanded the Health Renewal Compact beyond its original institutional signatories.

Health Independence Through Production

COVID-19 showed how risky it is to rely on foreign markets for vaccines, diagnostics, medicines, oxygen, and other critical products. Through PVAC, Nigeria has organized demand, improved the policy environment for manufacturers, and attracted investment in pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, vaccines, medical oxygen, devices, and research.

The Presidential Executive Order on health-sector manufacturing has backed local producers. Medipool is also being set up as a pooled procurement system. Financing from the European Investment Bank and Afreximbank aims to support over ninety projects worth about US$5 billion.

Nigeria wants to be able to produce, test, regulate, buy, and use health technologies within a strong national system. Investments in digital health, clinical research, and regulation align with WHA79’s focus on precision medicine and better drug monitoring. These capabilities would help with routine services, outbreak responses, and future preparedness, while also creating jobs and boosting research and industry.

Nigeria’s Continental Responsibility

Nigeria’s reforms align with the African Union and Africa CDC’s New Public Health Order, which stresses strong institutions, expanded manufacturing, workforce growth, local investment, and respectful international partnerships.

Nigeria's size makes its progress significant for the continent. A stronger health system boosts regional surveillance, expands Africa’s market for health products, and strengthens its position in negotiations over funding, technology, and access. Nigeria's success will help shape Africa’s public health agenda.

The Test of Delivery

The direction has been set, but the harder work is in keeping it going across the country. This needs reliable financing and consistent results in all states. Facilities must function after they are built, supplies must be available after distribution, and data should be useful for decisions, not just for reporting. Public trust must be built through service, transparency, and visible progress.

Ultimately, the reforms will be judged by how well facilities operate, the skill of personnel, dependable diagnostics, safe medicines, financial protection, effective monitoring, and measurable improvements in Nigerians' lives.

Nigeria has created a reform framework connecting primary healthcare, insurance, workforce policy, industrial growth, health security, digital systems, regulation, research, and community action. Its ambition is national, but its lessons can reach beyond Nigeria.

WHA79 confirms that Nigeria’s reforms align with the global consensus on country ownership, sustainable financing, workforce movement, antimicrobial resistance, and health independence. Under President Tinubu and Professor Pate, the course has been set. The real test is simpler: whether it provides reliable care, financial protection, and better health for Nigerians.