Kogi announces ₦7 billion upgrade of PHCs but won’t provide details while clinics remain incomplete, understaffed

Kogi State said it committed over N7 billion to upgrade 88 primary healthcare facilities and later announced 80 as commissioned.

From a distance, the OAU Primary Health Centre in Ojoku, Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State, appeared newly built when PREMIUM TIMES returned to the facility on 6 May 2026.

But a closer inspection revealed signs of unfinished work. The clinic was locked, with no health workers or patients in sight. No clinical services were being provided.

PREMIUM TIMES had first visited the facility in December 2025 and found that it was not providing clinical services.

Aminu Nuhu, head of the Department of Health Services, Ankpa Local Government Council, identified OAU PHC Ojoku as one of six facilities selected for revitalisation in the council area.

He said the council was still searching for health workers to deploy to some of the revitalised facilities.

“Those that have been revitalised, we are looking for staff to put in those facilities,” he said.

However, the absence of personnel was not the only problem.

Mr Nuhu said a borehole had been drilled at the facility but could not supply water because there was no electricity or solar installation to power the pump.

“They have completed it, but we are expecting them to put it into operation,” he said.

Nearly five months after the first visit, PREMIUM TIMES returned to the facility and found that clinical services had still not commenced.

A security guard at the facility said there was no medical equipment inside.

“There is nothing inside,” he said. “It’s just the building.”

The situation at OAU PHC Ojoku was among the problems uncovered during a months-long PREMIUM TIMES investigation into the Kogi State government’s multibillion-naira primary healthcare revitalisation programme.

The investigation examined whether the government’s investment had translated into functional health facilities capable of delivering essential services to residents.

It found unfinished rehabilitation work, inadequate staffing, lack of basic infrastructure and health workers operating from temporary accommodation, despite the government’s announcement that dozens of facilities had been revitalised and commissioned.

In January 2025, the Kogi State government announced that it had committed over N7 billion, with support from the World Bank, to upgrade 88 PHCs across the state’s 21 LGAs.

The announcement was made during the formal handover of project sites to contractors at the Model PHC in Felele, Lokoja.

Governor Ahmed Ododo, represented by the Commissioner for Health, Abdulazeez Adams, said the intervention would contribute to the upgrading of more than 150 PHCs into functional Level 2 facilities.

The contractors were directed to complete the projects within four months.

On 7 November 2025, the state government announced the commissioning of 80 revitalised PHCs.

Muazu Musa, executive director of the Kogi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, said the facilities had been transformed from Level 1 to Level 2.

Under the federal government’s 2025 HOPE-PHC Programme Operations Manual, functional Level 2 PHCs are expected to provide 24-hour health services, including basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care.

The programme’s verification framework also covers the availability of skilled birth attendants, reliable electricity or backup solar power, functional toilets with water and access to clean water.

These requirements are intended to ensure that upgraded facilities can provide essential healthcare services beyond improvements to their physical structures.

However, the Kogi State Government did not provide PREMIUM TIMES with the complete list of the 80 facilities it announced as commissioned.

As a result, the newspaper could not independently establish whether the facilities inspected during the investigation were among those officially commissioned.

A review of Kogi State procurement disclosures revealed four infrastructure contracts covering 88 PHCs.

The contracts had a combined value of N6.1 billion and were awarded to Multi Purpose Errand Mens Services Ltd, QSA Nigeria Ltd, Inknuel Ltd and Base-SAN Ventures Nigeria Ltd.

The records showed that N5.5 billion, representing approximately 90.6 per cent of the combined contract value, had been recorded as paid to the four contractors.