The Federal Government has announced plans to begin the 2024 audit of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) by mid-July, following the completion of a comprehensive review of its operational guidelines.
The move is part of ongoing efforts to promote transparency and strengthen financing for primary healthcare services across the country.
Dr. Oritseweyimi Ogbe, Secretary of the BHCPF Ministerial Oversight Committee (MOC), made this known during the committee’s 11th meeting held on Monday in Abuja.
While presenting the Secretariat’s update, Ogbe noted that the revised BHCPF Guideline (version 2.0) received provisional approval during the Q1 meeting.
He added that the guideline would now be disseminated following consultations by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare.
Ogbe also disclosed that financial audits for 2022 and 2023, covering all four gateways at both national and sub-national levels, had been completed.
“A draft of the audit reports is expected from the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF), after which a close-out meeting will be held.
“Since its inception in 2019, the BHCPF has disbursed over N159.2 billion across various gateways to support primary healthcare delivery nationwide.
“However, disbursements for Q1 and Q2 of 2025 are still pending due to initial delays in fund releases and recent changes in Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) account signatories,” he said.
Ogbe said that a memo regarding the pending 2025 disbursement was being prepared, and efforts were ongoing to align performance tracking with the National Health Sector Reform Implementation Initiative (NHSRII).
He added that the Secretariat was working closely with the Monitoring and Evaluation units of the gateways to identify priority BHCPF indicators that directly supported the national reform agenda.
To enhance public awareness, he noted that the MOC Secretariat was collaborating with the ICT Department of the Federal Ministry of Health to create a dedicated BHCPF section on the Ministry’s official website.
“Additional next steps include finalizing and circulating the 2022 and 2023 audit reports and intensifying the monitoring of performance-based indicators under the HOPE PHC Delivery Linked Indicators (DLIs), which fall under the MOC’s direct oversight.”
The BHCPF, established under the National Health Act, is a key health financing mechanism aimed at delivering a basic minimum package of healthcare services, especially for vulnerable populations.