The Federal Government has intensified efforts to strengthen healthcare delivery in the country by ensuring reliable power supply to over 35,000 health facilities through the Nigeria Power for Health Initiative.
Beginning with facilities that provide complex healthcare services, the government promised to deliver a 30 per cent uninterrupted power supply to tertiary health facilities nationwide by the end of 2027.
The NPHI is designed to ensure a reliable and sustainable electricity supply across health facilities in Nigeria.
For years, poor electricity supply has remained a major challenge affecting the optimal performance of health facilities, with tertiary hospitals struggling under the burden of exorbitant electricity bills that drain limited healthcare budgets.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, and the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, disclosed this in Lagos on Monday while addressing stakeholders and investors at the National Healthcare Electrification Investor Matchmaking Forum under the NPHI, which seeks to ensure a steady power supply to health facilities nationwide.
The ministers said the initiative would not only guarantee uninterrupted electricity for tertiary health facilities but also make power supply accessible, affordable, and sustainable to both privately owned and publicly owned hospitals to enable unhindered delivery of quality healthcare.
The matchmaking forum, organised by the Ministries of Power and Health in collaboration with the United Kingdom PACT programme, brought together strategic stakeholders, investors, private sector players, development partners, government agencies, hospital administrators, and healthcare professionals to deliberate on lasting solutions to the challenge of power supply in health facilities.
Speaking, Tegbe said the forum represented a critical milestone in “our collective efforts to address one of the most fundamental enablers of an effective health system — reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity.”
The minister noted that inadequate power supply remains a major challenge confronting the health sector, adding that no healthcare system can function effectively without reliable electricity.
According to him, electricity is essential for operating diagnostic equipment, preserving vaccines and medicines, performing surgeries, powering laboratories, providing lighting for emergency services, sustaining cold chain systems, and supporting digital health systems.
“As many in this room are aware, even before my appointment as Minister of Power, I have been a key stakeholder in the Nigeria Power for Health Initiative since its inception. This is not an ordinary programme for me — it is a personal commitment.
“Today, we are not merely discussing electricity; we are discussing saving lives and removing one of the major impediments to quality healthcare delivery through the solarisation of healthcare facilities across the country. Most importantly, we are discussing a future where no Nigerian is denied quality healthcare because a health facility lacks reliable electricity,” he said.
Tegbe explained that the objectives of the NPHI align with the ongoing power sector reforms and the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, aimed at increasing access to reliable electricity nationwide.
He added that the initiative would help integrate energy planning into health sector infrastructure development, deploy appropriate energy solutions including grid enhancement, embedded generation, renewable and hybrid systems, improve energy management within hospitals and primary healthcare centres, and strengthen coordination among power sector institutions, health authorities, regulators, and private sector partners.
The minister further described the Nigeria Power for Health Investor Matchmaking Forum as a strategic investment platform aimed at providing sustainable electricity and attractive investment opportunities.
He said Nigeria’s healthcare electrification market presents “one of the most compelling investment opportunities on the African continent,” given the enormous demand across over 35,000 registered health facilities at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.
Tegbe identified investment opportunities in solar mini-grids, hybrid energy systems, battery storage solutions, energy efficiency technologies, smart metering systems, facility energy management platforms, operations and maintenance services, and climate-resilient energy infrastructure.
“We are now moving beyond traditional grant-funded, unsustainable government funding and progressing to sustainable financing models that combine public resources, private capital, development finance, and innovative risk-sharing mechanisms,” he said.
He added that the ultimate beneficiaries of the initiative would be Nigerians through improved maternal healthcare services, reduced mortality rates, better vaccine preservation, enhanced emergency response capabilities, increased availability of diagnostic services, improved working conditions for healthcare professionals, extended operating hours for healthcare facilities, and improved patient confidence and satisfaction.
“The Federal Ministry of Power is a co-driver of this initiative. We are already in the field — the ministry has deployed solar mini-grids and hybrid systems to health facilities under the World Bank-funded Nigeria Electrification Project, and we are extending that work systematically into the NPHI framework.
“The power sector will deliver visible, measurable improvement, and health facilities are where that improvement must be felt first,” he assured.
In his address, Salako said Nigeria needed a structured, coordinated, and sustainable mechanism to address the energy challenges facing healthcare facilities, which gave birth to the NPHI.
The health minister noted that healthcare electrification efforts in the past had largely relied on government-funded projects and donor-supported asset deployment, but this model had not produced the long-lasting solutions the health system requires.
“Electricity is not merely a utility in a healthcare facility. Like human resources for health, it is a compulsory driver of the health system. It powers operating theatres during life-saving surgeries, keeps vaccines potent through reliable cold chain systems, powers incubators that sustain premature babies, and enables diagnostics, blood banking services, oxygen delivery systems, digital health technologies, and emergency response services. When electricity fails, healthcare delivery stagnates,” he said.
Salako expressed concern that many healthcare facilities across the country continue to struggle with unreliable power supply, while grid outages, voltage fluctuations, and rising diesel costs have become persistent operational challenges.
“In most facilities, energy expenditure consumes a substantial proportion of operating revenues, diverting scarce resources away from patient care, workforce development, essential medicines procurement, and equipment maintenance,” he lamented.
“The consequences are measured not only in financial losses but in compromised health outcomes, reduced service availability, increased operational risks, and diminished public trust in our health system. Reliable energy, therefore, remains one of the most important investments we should make in strengthening healthcare delivery and improving health outcomes,” he added.
The minister told stakeholders that the Federal Government could not achieve the transformation alone and called for support from development finance institutions, commercial banks, institutional investors, energy developers, sub-national governments, healthcare institutions, and development partners.
Also speaking, the Director of Hospital Services at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Abisola Adegoke, said the country was closer to achieving the first target of powering about 30 per cent of health institutions with uninterrupted electricity by the end of 2027.
She said the effort would focus on clean and affordable energy sources while leveraging public-private partnerships that prioritise Energy-as-a-Service delivery models.
Adegoke described the matchmaking forum as a gathering of strategic stakeholders critical to solving the issue of power supply in the nation’s health facilities.
“Getting to this point is an interesting long story, and interesting because there is significant commitment on the side of the sole initiator and driver of this process.
“It is a significant milestone in the path to achieving a landmark feat towards addressing one of the major problems troubling the health sector, particularly our federal tertiary hospitals,” she added.
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