World Bank-assisted Programme: States to Publish Quarterly Basic Education, Primary Health Contract Awards 

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja 

The subnational governments are to embark on quarterly publication of contract award information for procurements in the basic education and primary healthcare sectors, within 30 days of the end of each quarter under the World Bank-supported Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity (HOPE-GOV) Programme of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning. 

National Coordinator of the HOPE-GOV Programme, Dr. Assad Hassan, disclosed this at the first Implementation Support Meeting for 2026 with state focal persons, held virtually preparatory for the first year verification by Independent Verification Agents (IVAs).

No fewer than 100 persons from across all the states of the federation participated in the virtual meeting.

Hassan said the quarterly publication of contract award information for procurement of the basic education and primary healthcare sectors was in conformity with the programme’s commitment to transparency in public procurement.

He explained that the information must be published on state government websites to enable verification by the IVAs, as a prerequisite for the disbursement of incentive funds to the states.

The Communications Officer, HOPE-GOV Programme, Joe Mutah, quoted Hassan as saying that the minimum contract award information to be published include project name, awarding institution, award date, name of contractor and contract amount.

“For MDAs without e-procurement, the Independent Verification Agents (IVAs) will obtain schedule of all contracts awarded above threshold (as defined in state procurement law or regulations) and confirm whether disclosures on state official website are compliant with Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) format. 

“For MDAs with e-Procurement, the IVAs will obtain schedule of all contracts awarded during the year before and after go-live and confirm that state has online portal established to record and publish data on all processes in procurement cycle, for all transactions initiated after go-live resulting in a contract award and confirm whether data published is in line with OCDS,” Hassan said.

He announced that states are currently being engaged to strengthen their institutional arrangements to ensure diligent implementation of the HOPE-GOV Programme in order to achieve maximum results.

According to him, states are also required to publish financial year 2026 citizen’s budget for basic education and primary healthcare by February 28, 2026.

He listed minimum details to be confirmed by IVAs in Citizens Budget as sources of revenues, domestic and foreign grants and loans, other financing sources, total expenditure by functions of government segment with identifiable functions for basic education and primary health care; total expenditure by health policy (programme) segment with identifiable programmes for basic health and primary health care and functions and programmes linked to respective economic classifications.

He said others are budget framework, including total revenue and grants, total expenditures, budget deficit, budget financing and financing gap; breakdown of expenditures by sectors and ministries as well as lists of large capital projects and geolocations.

The National Coordinator stated that under the HOPE GOV Programme, states are mandated to publish the Financial and Performance Audits of Basic Education and and Primary Health Care submitted to state assemblies and published at specific dates. 

He added that the biometric capture and BVN data of 80 per cent of Basic Education and Primary Health Care workers in the states’ public service are to be completed and linked to payroll in order to identify ghost workers and take them off the payroll.