Healthcare Policy & Governance
By IbrahimG Ahmad
Gusau, Dec. 13, 2025 (NAN) – In a significant development for public health in Northern Nigeria, the Zamfara State Government has been awarded a $500,000 prize for achieving the top ranking in the North-West Zone’s Primary Healthcare Leadership Challenge. This award, however, represents far more than a financial windfall; it is a validation of a targeted governance strategy in a region historically plagued by insecurity and underdevelopment.
The announcement, detailed in a statement by Governor Dauda Lawal’s spokesperson, Sulaiman Idris, marks Zamfara as a surprising frontrunner in a competitive field. The award was presented at a ceremony at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, recognizing the state’s tangible progress against a set of rigorous performance indicators.
To understand the weight of this achievement, one must examine the genesis of the challenge itself. Launched in 2022 by the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), the Primary Health Care Leadership Challenge was conceived as a direct response to the country’s fragmented and under-resourced primary care system. The NGF’s pledge was ambitious: to build a health system delivering quality care “regardless of geography or circumstance.” For states in the North-West, this geography includes vast rural areas and the circumstance often involves persistent security challenges that disrupt service delivery.
“Zamfara emerged as the best performing state in dealing with the Primary Health Care Challenge among Northwestern States,” the statement confirmed. This outcome is directly attributed to Governor Lawal’s controversial but decisive “state of emergency” declared on the state’s health sector upon taking office. This policy shift likely involved concrete, measurable actions such as increased and timely budgetary releases for health, infrastructure rehabilitation at Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs), improved healthcare worker training and retention schemes, and stronger supply chains for essential medicines and vaccines.
The award’s backing by a powerful consortium—the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, the Dangote Foundation, and the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA)—lends it immense credibility. It signals that Zamfara’s progress is being measured by global standards. “This clearly demonstrates that Gov. Lawal’s declaration of state of emergency on the Zamfara health sector has yielded the intended outcomes,” the statement noted.
The strategic objective of the PHC Leadership Challenge Fund is critical: to promote *sustainable* healthcare financing and create a culture of healthy competition among Nigeria’s 36 states. The $500,000 prize is not merely a reward but an investment designed to be plowed back into the system, creating a virtuous cycle of improvement. In this third edition of the awards, Zamfara and other leading states from each of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones shared a total pool of $6.1 million, illustrating the scale of this performance-based financing initiative.
The deeper implication of Zamfara’s win is a potential blueprint for other challenged regions. It proves that even in a difficult environment, focused political leadership, coupled with strategic partnerships and performance-based incentives, can produce measurable healthcare gains. The real test will be sustainability—whether this momentum can be maintained to permanently alter health outcomes for Zamfara’s citizens, making the state a lasting model of primary healthcare resilience in the North. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
IAG/KLM
Edited by Muhammad Lawal
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