A fresh assessment of primary healthcare centres in Nigeria has revealed major gaps in manpower, infrastructure and essential services, with only three per cent of the facilities surveyed meeting the required staffing standard.
The PHC Operational Capability Report by Orodata Science and Civic Tech assessed 1,480 primary healthcare centres across 16 states and 277 local government areas.
The exercise, conducted from October 2023 to June 2025, examined the availability of health workers, medical equipment, electricity, water, infrastructure and accessibility.
Findings showed that 11 of the 16 states recorded no PHC that satisfied the minimum staffing requirement.
The report also found that 38 per cent of the facilities had no electricity, while 39 per cent relied on unsafe sources of water. Another 40 per cent were found to have leaking roofs or damaged ceilings.
Newborn care was also identified as a major concern, with 75 per cent of the centres lacking essential neonatal resuscitation equipment.
Similarly, 66 per cent did not have adequate provisions for people living with disabilities or those with mobility difficulties.
According to the report, the challenges frequently occurred at the same facilities, further limiting their ability to deliver reliable healthcare services.
It added that 51 per cent of residents surveyed rated the services provided by their local PHCs as poor.
Orodata urged governments to urgently fix damaged facilities, improve access to electricity and safe water, employ more healthcare workers and supply essential medical equipment.
The organisation also advised state authorities to rely on verified facility-level data when designing interventions and to regularly track improvements in the health centres.