The Federal Government has set up a joint task team with the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to strengthen checks on funds and investments in Nigeria’s health sector.
The team, inaugurated on Monday by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the ICPC, will focus on finding gaps in the system, closing loopholes and preventing the misuse of health funds.
Pate: Health fund diversion costs lives
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, said the government was moving away from waiting until public funds were misused before taking action.
He said the new approach would focus on identifying possible weaknesses early and putting measures in place to prevent losses.
“Every naira invested in our health system carries an obligation: to reach the facility, the health worker, and the Nigerian whose life depends on it,” Pate said.
He added that when health funds are diverted, the effect is felt directly by Nigerians through unavailable medicines, missing equipment and poor health services.
“In this sector, corruption can cost lives,” he said.
Pate described the task team as “an instrument for institutional change”, saying it would strengthen preventive controls and oversight across the health sector.
Team to monitor BHCPF spending
The task team will also monitor the use of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).
The Federal Government said it has deployed 774 Performance and Financial Management Officers, with one officer assigned to each Local Government Area to independently verify the receipt and use of BHCPF funds.
The government is also using verified National Identification Numbers to confirm beneficiaries and reduce duplication, while digital systems are being used to improve the tracking of funds.
The initiative follows the government’s October 2025 Red Letter, which called on communities and ward health committees to monitor whether BHCPF funds were reaching health facilities.
The new task team is expected to add formal institutional monitoring to those community-level efforts.
It will conduct assessments after each quarterly disbursement of the BHCPF, while the BHCPF Secretariat will serve as its secretariat.
The team will be jointly led by the Director of Hospital Services, representing the Ministry, and a Director of the ICPC. Other officials will be drawn from relevant departments and offices.
The agreement will run for two years, with the possibility of renewal.
ICPC warns of wider cost of corruption
The Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Daju Kachollom S. mni, said protecting health resources was essential to the Ministry’s work of saving lives and improving access to healthcare.
“This is a Team designed to be embedded in how the Ministry already works, not to sit outside it,” she said.
The ICPC Chairman, Dr. Musa Adamu Aliyu, represented by the Commission’s Executive Secretary, Mr. Clifford Oparaodu, said the partnership would strengthen preventive monitoring of health resources, especially the BHCPF.
According to him, the impact of corruption in healthcare goes beyond missing money or irregular accounts.
“Corruption in the health sector is not measured only in financial losses or accounting irregularities,” Aliyu said.
He said its consequences could also be seen in maternal and infant deaths, low immunisation rates, preventable disease deaths and difficulties accessing affordable healthcare.
Pate and the ICPC chairman formally inaugurated the task team in Abuja.
The government said the partnership is aimed at ensuring that money invested in healthcare is properly used and delivers better health services for Nigerians.
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