Twenty Nigerian states will receive a combined $27 million in performance-based grants under the World Bank-supported Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity (HOPE) Governance Programme after meeting key reform targets in education, primary healthcare and public financial management.
The disbursement was announced on Tuesday by the National Coordinator of the HOPE Governance Programme, Dr. Assad Hassan, during a retreat for Commissioners, Permanent Secretaries and Directors of Budget and Planning in Abuja.
The HOPE Governance Programme is a $500 million World Bank-backed initiative housed in the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning. It is designed to improve financing for basic education and primary healthcare while strengthening transparency, accountability and workforce management across the two sectors.
Hassan said the grants were awarded based on participating states’ performance against the programme’s Year Zero Disbursement-Linked Results (DLRs), a set of reform milestones that states must achieve before becoming eligible for funding.
The benchmarks include adopting comprehensive planning guidelines for basic education and primary healthcare, implementing harmonised local government budget guidelines and publishing citizens’ budgets to enhance transparency in public spending.
Following an assessment by the Interim Independent Verification Agent (IVA), the programme approved funding for states that successfully met the required reform targets.
Under DLR 2.1, which focused on the adoption of comprehensive guidelines for preparing and submitting consolidated basic education work plans, Bayelsa, Borno, Kano, Kebbi and Yobe each qualified for $1.5 million.
The same five states also secured an additional $1.5 million each under DLR 2.2 for adopting comprehensive guidelines for consolidated primary healthcare work plans.
For DLR 2.3, which required local governments to adopt harmonised budget guidelines and a standard chart of accounts, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Gombe, Kano, Plateau, Taraba and Yobe will each receive $500,000.
Meanwhile, Abia, Bayelsa, Borno, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Kogi, Nasarawa, Ondo, Plateau and Yobe qualified for $500,000 each under DLR 4.1 after publishing their 2025 Citizens’ Budgets for basic education and primary healthcare.
Explaining why some states were excluded from the first round of disbursements, Hassan said:
“Other participating states did not qualify because they failed to meet the stipulated requirements, missed submission deadlines or did not publish the required documents on their official websites.”
The Federal Government and the World Bank formally commenced implementation of the $500 million HOPE Governance Programme in December 2025 to strengthen financial management and human resource systems across Nigeria’s basic education and primary healthcare sectors.
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Of the total financing, $480 million has been earmarked for performance-based grants to states that achieve agreed reform targets, while the remaining $20 million will fund technical assistance, institutional strengthening and implementation support.
The programme is being implemented through a partnership involving state governments, the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, the Basic Health Care Provision Fund oversight structures and the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
The World Bank approved the programme in September 2024 following negotiations concluded a month earlier. Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council approved the financing agreement in February 2025 before it was countersigned in April and became effective in September 2025.
The programme comes as Nigeria continues to grapple with longstanding challenges in its education and healthcare sectors.
According to the 2025 State Performance Index (SPI), fewer than 30 per cent of Nigerians are satisfied with public healthcare services, making healthcare one of the country’s weakest-performing governance sectors.
The education sector also faces significant infrastructure deficits. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)reported in late 2024 that about 70 per cent of schools and 88 per cent of health facilities across Nigeria lack access to basic sanitation services.
The HOPE Governance Programme is expected to help address these challenges by encouraging states to improve planning, budgeting, transparency and service delivery through a performance-based funding model.