Health
FG targets steady power for 30% of health facilities by 2027 amid PHC electricity gap
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.
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.
“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.
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A total of 10,494 Nigerians are listed among staff in the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS), according to data shared by NHS Million, a UK campaign organisation focused on NHS staff.
Nigeria ranked sixth overall on the list, behind the UK/British, India, the Philippines, Ireland and Poland, making Nigeria the largest African nationality represented in the breakdown.
The data shared by NHS Million showed that more than 1.1 million NHS workers identified as British or UK nationals, while Indians accounted for 32,117 staff and Filipinos 25,423.
It also showed that Zimbabwe had the second-highest number of African nationals working in the NHS, with 4,780, followed by Ghana with 3,395, Egypt with 2,895 and South Africa with 1,829.
The figures highlight the significant contribution of Nigerian professionals to the UK health system, but also come amid persistent concerns over the shortage of health workers in the country.
Nigeria loses thousands of health workers
The 2025 State of Health of the Nation Report, released by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, showed that over 20,000 Nigerian health workers relocated abroad within one year.
The figure included 3,919 doctors, 7,487 nurses and midwives, 6,861 medical laboratory professionals, 702 pharmacists, 658 physiotherapists and 274 dentists, among other health professionals. The report also showed that Nigeria has 95,456 registered doctors, but only 60,551 currently hold active practising licences.
The workforce shortage is further worsened by the uneven distribution of health professionals across the country, with several northern states recording particularly low doctor densities.
UK remains major destination
The United Kingdom is one of the major destinations for Nigerian health professionals.
Data from the UK’s General Medical Council showed that 4,691 Nigerian-trained doctors joined the UK medical register between May 2023 and April 2026, according to a Punch report.
The data also showed that 15,896 Nigerian-trained doctors were licensed to practise in the UK.
READ ALSO: PT Health Watch: How laboratory tests can help detect colorectal cancer early – Expert
The 2025 State of Health of the Nation Report identified external migration as one of the factors affecting the availability of health professionals in Nigeria.
Migration policy yet to be fully implemented
The federal government has introduced several measures aimed at increasing the health workforce and addressing migration.
Nigeria also approved a National Policy on Health Workforce Migration in August 2024, aimed at managing health worker migration, improving retention and strengthening workforce planning.
However, the 2025 State of Health of the Nation Report said that although the implementation plan had been finalised, full implementation had not commenced.
The report said an additional 23,000 frontline health workers were trained in 2025, bringing the number trained between 2024 and 2025 to 78,146, or about 65 per cent of the national target of 120,000.
The policy is intended to improve working conditions, support career progression and establish a more coordinated approach to health worker migration and retention.
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Colorectal cancer, which affects the colon and rectum, is one of the most common cancers globally, yet it can remain unnoticed for a long time because some people have no symptoms in the early stages.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 1.9 million new cases of colorectal cancer and more than 900,000 deaths occurred globally in 2022.
The agency said symptoms, when they occur, may include blood in the stool, persistent changes in bowel habits, abdominal pain, unexplained weight loss and fatigue.
Because some people may not notice any warning signs, screening can provide an opportunity to identify possible abnormalities before the disease becomes advanced.
What happens before a diagnosis is confirmed?
Laboratory investigations are an important part of that process, as medical laboratory scientists examine samples that can provide clues about what is happening in a patient’s body.
Speaking with PT HEALTH WATCH, Adedoye David, a medical laboratory scientist, said laboratory testing contributes to the investigation of colorectal cancer through the examination of biological samples, including stool, blood and tissue.
One of the investigations is the Faecal Occult Blood Test (FOBT), which detects blood in stool that may not be visible to the naked eye.
Another is the Faecal Immunochemical Test (FIT), which uses antibodies to detect human haemoglobin in stool.
These tests can help identify people who may require further assessment, but Mr David stressed that detecting blood in stool is not the same as diagnosing cancer.
“Stool-based tests are very important for detecting hidden blood in stool. It could be reliable if the test investigation is carried out using the right and standard operating procedures.
“But as much as it can be reliable in detecting hidden blood, it might not be totally reliable in the diagnosis of colorectal cancer,”he said.
Where further investigation is necessary, Mr David said a patient may be referred for procedures such as colonoscopy, during which abnormal areas can be identified and tissue samples taken for laboratory examination.
A biopsy can then help determine whether the abnormal tissue is cancerous.
Why symptoms should not be ignored
The distinction between screening and diagnosis is important because colorectal cancer does not always announce itself with obvious symptoms.
A person who feels healthy may therefore not consider testing necessary, while another may receive a negative stool test and conclude that further medical attention is unnecessary.
Mr David said both assumptions could be misleading.
He urged people to seek medical advice when they experience persistent symptoms rather than waiting for them to become severe.
He also advised people with a family history of colorectal cancer or long-term inflammatory bowel disease to discuss their risk with healthcare professionals and determine whether they require earlier or more frequent screening.
WHO identifies family history of colorectal cancer and certain inflammatory bowel diseases among factors that can increase a person’s risk of developing the disease.
Although colorectal cancer is more common with increasing age, it is not exclusively a disease of older people. WHO has also reported a rising incidence among younger adults in several countries.
Screening is only useful when people can complete it
The challenge, however, is not simply persuading people to undergo screening. The health system must also be able to support them when a test produces an abnormal result.
Evidence from Nigeria illustrates this point.
A Nigerian community-based study involving more than 2,000 adults found that FIT screening was feasible. However, the researchers also highlighted challenges with follow-up colonoscopy after positive results.
This means that detecting a possible problem is only one part of the process. Patients must be able to access the additional investigations required to establish what the abnormal result means and, where necessary, begin treatment.
Mr David identified limited facilities capable of carrying out some key investigations and the cost of available services as major challenges facing colorectal cancer testing in Nigeria.
For people who may already be hesitant about testing, the cost and availability of diagnostic services can make early detection even more difficult.
READ ALSO: Hot tea, coffee linked to higher risk of oesophageal cancer — Study
Mr David also urged Nigerians to overcome the embarrassment that may come with providing stool samples for laboratory examination.
“There is nothing to be ashamed of producing a stool sample. It is just like any other medical sample and it is needed for us to carry out informed diagnosis,” he said.
Ultimately, a stool test is not a verdict on whether a person has cancer. Rather, it can be one step in a process that helps health professionals decide who may need further investigation.
For Mr David, improving colorectal cancer outcomes therefore requires both public awareness and access to appropriate laboratory and diagnostic services, so that people can seek help early and abnormal findings can be properly investigated.
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