FG targets steady power for 30% of health facilities by 2027 amid PHC electricity gap

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The Nigerian government has set a target to provide reliable electricity to at least 30 per cent of health facilities by the end of 2027, as about 40 per cent of functional Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) currently lack access to electricity.

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The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Iziaq Salako, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja at the official launch of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA)-Renewable Asset Management Company (RAMCO).

The event was held under the theme, “Powering Sustainable Growth: Launching Nigeria’s Renewable Asset Management Company.”

Mr Salako said the electricity deficit in health facilities was undermining healthcare delivery, noting that reliable power was not merely an infrastructure requirement but a determinant of health outcomes.

“In a hospital, electricity is not an amenity; it is a clinical input,” he said.

He explained that electricity was required for critical services and equipment, including vaccine cold chains, oxygen concentrators, operating theatres and incubators for premature babies.

According to Mr Salako, between 60 and 70 per cent of Nigeria’s primary and tertiary health facilities experience frequent power outages or lack electricity altogether.

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“About 40 per cent of functional PHCs have no electricity access, with most of the remaining 60 per cent receiving only six to 10 hours of electricity per day,” he said.

Hospitals spend up to 50% of their operating costs on energy
Mr Salako said the unreliable power supply was also placing a significant financial burden on teaching hospitals.

According to him, teaching hospitals require between three and eight megawatts to operate optimally but receive roughly five hours of electricity from the national grid daily.

He said this had resulted in hospitals committing between 40 and 50 per cent of their operating expenditure to energy, much of it spent on diesel.

Mr Salako acknowledged efforts by the Federal Ministry of Power and the REA to provide sustainable electricity to health facilities.

He said federal tertiary health institutions, including teaching hospitals in Maiduguri and Calabar, had benefited from the Energising Education Programme.

Under the Nigeria Electrification Project, he said 100 health facilities had also received 50 kilowatt containerised solar hybrid systems, while a second phase would target 400 PHCs.

Despite these interventions, Salako said the sustainability of renewable energy systems remained a major concern.

Steady power in 30% of facilities by 2027
Mr Salako said the 30 per cent target was part of the Nigeria Power-for-Health Initiative approved by President Bola Tinubu following the first National Stakeholders’ Dialogue on Power in the Health Sector held in September 2025.

According to him, the dialogue produced a Compact for the Sustainable Electrification of Public and Private Health Facilities, signed by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Federal Ministry of Power, sub-national governments, the Committee of CMDs/MDs, the private sector, development partners and civil society.

He said the dialogue also produced an implementation plan aimed at ensuring that at least 30 per cent of health facilities in Nigeria had a steady power supply by the end of 2027.

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The initiative also produced a governance structure on which the REA and other government agencies sit, Mr Salako said.

He said achieving the target would require private capital and partnerships, as the government alone could not finance the scale of energy infrastructure needed across Nigeria’s health system.

RAMCO-health sector collaboration
Mr Salako proposed four areas of collaboration between RAMCO and the Nigeria Power-for-Health Initiative.

He called for health facilities to be recognised as a distinct asset class within RAMCO’s portfolio, beginning with teaching hospitals that had already been solarised under the Energising Education Programme and systems delivered to health facilities under the Nigeria Electrification Project.

He also proposed linking RAMCO’s professional asset management with the institutionalisation of Facility Energy Management Teams in hospitals, with support from UK PACT.

According to him, RAMCO’s asset register should be integrated with health facility energy audits so that both sectors can plan on a single evidence base.

He further proposed that a defined share of RAMCO’s capital be directed towards PHCs, which he described as the sites least commercially attractive but most consequential for maternal and newborn survival.

Mr Salako said the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare would support RAMCO by giving it a seat on the Inter-Agency Technical Committee of the Power-for-Health Initiative.