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What WHA79 says about Nigeria’s health reforms 27 Jul 2026

The Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly, which concluded in Geneva on 23 May 2026, may be remembered less for its resolutions than for the view of health they expressed. Across deliberations on financing, antimicrobial resistance, workforce mobility, emergency preparedness and universal health coverage, health was treated as a concern of economic policy, industrial development, national security and social resilience.

The Assembly adopted the WHO Strategy on the Economics of Health for All 2026–2030, approved an updated Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance, and amended the WHO Global Code on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. Together, these decisions placed sustainable financing, One Health action, ethical recruitment, and co-investment within a broader view of health as a foundation for development.

Nigeria had already incorporated these principles into its reforms: national ownership, coherent planning, stronger primary healthcare, domestic financing, local manufacturing, workforce development, digital systems, regulatory capacity, community participation, and emergency preparedness.

That direction was set on 12 December 2023, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu launched the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and secured the Health Renewal Compact among the Federal Government, the thirty-six states, the Federal Capital Territory and development partners. Implemented through the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp), it replaced fragmented programmes with common priorities, coordinated implementation and clearer accountability. The Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC) extended the same logic to manufacturing, investment, regulation, research and supply security. Under the leadership of the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, presidential intent has become a national reform programme.

The framework brings together governments, public institutions, development partners and private enterprise around shared priorities. It also directly supports WHA79’s decision to pursue a Member State-led, WHO-hosted reform of a global health architecture weakened by fragmentation, duplication and poor alignment with country priorities. Nigeria presented its experience with one plan, one budget and one reporting framework, with all thirty-six governors and development partners aligned to national priorities. That experience gave substance to its call for country ownership and fair African representation.

Public Health at National Scale

The value of national reform is determined far from the conference room—in the clinic where a woman seeks antenatal care, the community where a child is due for vaccination, and the household deciding whether it can afford treatment. Nigeria’s reform programme is beginning to take shape in those places.

Across the federation, revitalisation has begun at more than 4,100 primary healthcare centres, with over 3,100 completed. What matters is what functioning facilities enable: earlier diagnosis, safer deliveries, routine immunisation and dependable care closer to home.

Financial protection is also expanding. More than six million Nigerians enrolled in health insurance between 2023 and 2025. The Federal Government financed more than 40,000 caesarean sections, making lifesaving obstetric care accessible to women for whom the cost might otherwise have been prohibitive. This aligns with WHA79’s new strategy for integrated emergency, critical and operative care.

Infrastructure cannot provide care without people, equipment and supplies. More than 78,000 frontline health workers have been trained, with recruitment increasing, towards a target of 120,000. Essential medicines, maternal and newborn supplies, reproductive health equipment and cold-chain facilities have also been deployed nationwide. These investments attract less attention than a new hospital, but often determine whether a facility can provide care.

Nigeria’s outbreak responses offer further evidence of public-health capacity. It became the first African country to deploy the mpox vaccine and mounted large-scale vaccination campaigns against cholera and meningitis. Annual attendance at health facilities rose from 34.5 million in 2023 to 43 million in 2025, alongside gains in antenatal care, skilled birth attendance and routine immunisation.

Serious burdens remain. Maternal and child mortality remain unacceptably high, inequalities between states persist, and many communities lack reliable access to quality care. The relevant test is whether a country has the direction, institutions and instruments to confront these problems at scale. On that measure, Nigeria’s reforms deserve wider recognition.

Nigeria’s Leadership on Antimicrobial Resistance

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

Nigeria has begun assembling these elements through its Second One Health National Action Plan on AMR 2024–2028, NHSRII, SWAp arrangements, regulatory reforms, investments in diagnostics and laboratories, and local production of health commodities. It treats AMR as a health-system and governance challenge, not a narrow question of antibiotic use.

Nigeria remains the designated host of the Fifth Global High-Level Ministerial Conference on Antimicrobial Resistance. Although the June meeting was postponed, preparations continue. The mandate recognises Nigeria’s convening role and lends weight to its case that containing AMR depends on functional primary healthcare, capable laboratories, quality-assured medicines, effective regulation, workforce competence and coordination across human, animal, agricultural and environmental systems.

A New Compact on Health-Worker Mobility

The National Policy on Health Workforce Migration, approved in 2024, treats mobility as a governance issue shaped by global demand, wage differentials, training capacity and professional rights.

The amended WHO Code encourages co-investment to benefit both source and destination countries. Countries that benefit from Nigerian-trained professionals should participate in partnerships for education, specialist training, institutional development and workforce expansion. International mobility cannot be fair if the systems that produce health workers are weakened by the labour markets that depend on them.

Leadership from Every LGA

The National Health Fellowship recruited one young fellow from each of the 774 local government areas; its fellows have undertaken more than 1,500 community projects. This links national reform with local knowledge, public service and leadership succession.

Traditional and religious leaders are also taking on a deeper role in public health policy. Vaccination, maternal health, nutrition, antimicrobial stewardship and outbreak response are shaped within families, congregations and communities. Trusted social institutions influence behaviour, encourage service uptake and reinforce accountability. Their formal inclusion, alongside local governments, civil society and the private sector, has broadened the Health Renewal Compact beyond its original institutional signatories.

Health Sovereignty Through Production

Covid-19 highlighted the risks of dependence on external markets for vaccines, diagnostics, medicines, oxygen and other critical products. Through PVAC, Nigeria has organised demand, improved the policy environment for manufacturers and mobilised investment in pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, vaccines, medical oxygen, devices and research.

The Presidential Executive Order on health-sector manufacturing has supported local producers, while Medipool is being established as a pooled procurement mechanism. Financing commitments from the European Investment Bank and Afreximbank are intended to support more than ninety projects, valued at about US$5 billion.

Nigeria seeks the capacity to produce, test, regulate, purchase and deploy health technologies within a coherent national system. Investments in digital health, clinical research, genomics and regulation also align with WHA79’s emphasis on precision medicine and stronger pharmacovigilance, including the responsible use of digital tools and real-world data. These capabilities would support routine services, outbreak response and future preparedness, while contributing to employment, research and industrial development.

Nigeria’s Continental Responsibility

Nigeria’s reforms align with the African Union and Africa CDC’s New Public Health Order, which emphasises capable institutions, expanded manufacturing, workforce development, domestic investment and respectful international partnerships.

Nigeria’s scale gives its progress continental consequences. A stronger health system improves regional surveillance, broadens Africa’s market for health products and adds weight to negotiations over financing, technology and access. Its success will help determine whether Africa’s public-health agenda becomes operational.

The Test of Delivery

The direction has been set; the harder work lies in sustaining it across the federation. That will require more reliable financing and more consistent results across states. Facilities must remain functional after construction, commodities must be available after initial distribution, and data must be useful for decision-making rather than reporting alone. Public trust must be earned through service, transparency and visible improvement.

The reform will ultimately be judged by the performance of facilities, the competence of personnel, reliable diagnostics, safe medicines, financial protection, effective surveillance and measurable improvements in the lives of Nigerians.

Nigeria has established a reform architecture that links primary healthcare, insurance, workforce policy, industrial development, health security, digital systems, regulation, research and community implementation. Its ambition is national, but its lessons extend beyond Nigeria.

WHA79 confirms that Nigeria’s reforms align with the emerging global consensus on country ownership, sustainable financing, workforce mobility, antimicrobial resistance and health sovereignty. Under President Tinubu and Professor Pate, the course has been set. Its worth will be judged by a simpler test: whether it delivers reliable care, financial protection and better health for Nigerians.

Chinedu Moghalu is a lawyer, strategic communications expert, and public policy adviser with over two decades of leadership across government, international organisations, and development institutions. Currently, senior special adviser to Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare.