The World Bank has approved $27 million in performance-based incentives for Nigerian states that successfully implemented key reforms in the education and primary healthcare sectors under the HOPE Governance Programme.
The National Coordinator of the programme, Assad Hassan, announced the development on Tuesday during a retreat for commissioners, permanent secretaries and directors of budget and planning from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja.
According to a statement issued by the programme’s Communications Officer, Joe Mutah, the incentives are based on the findings of the Interim Independent Verification Agent, which assessed states’ performance against the programme’s Year Zero Disbursement-Linked Results (DLRs).
Five states — Bayelsa, Borno, Kano, Kebbi and Yobe — emerged as the biggest beneficiaries after meeting the requirements under two key performance indicators.
Each of the five states will receive $1.5 million under DLR 2.1 for adopting comprehensive guidelines for preparing and submitting consolidated work plans for basic education budgets.
They also qualified for another $1.5 million each under DLR 2.2, which focuses on similar reforms in primary healthcare budgeting, bringing the total reward for the five states to $15 million.
Under DLR 2.3, which measures the adoption of harmonised budget guidelines and a chart of accounts for local governments, Adamawa, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Gombe, Kano, Plateau, Taraba and Yobe qualified for incentives of $500,000 each.
Another 15 states also earned $500,000 each under DLR 4.1 for publishing their 2025 Citizens Budget for basic education and primary healthcare within the required timeline.
Hassan explained that only states that met the programme’s requirements before the stipulated deadlines qualified for the incentives.
“Other participating states were not eligible for the incentives because they either published the required guidelines after the deadline, failed to meet most of the stipulated criteria, or did not publish the required results on their official state websites,” he said.
He identified weak institutional coordination as one of the major reasons many states failed to qualify and urged governments to strengthen collaboration among ministries, departments and agencies to sustain the reforms.
Hassan also disclosed that the programme had begun implementing a capacity-building plan aimed at helping states improve their systems and achieve future performance targets.
The HOPE Governance Programme is a $500 million World Bank-supported initiative designed to improve financing, transparency, accountability and service delivery in Nigeria’s basic education and primary healthcare sectors.
