Five states have earned a combined $15 million in performance-based incentives under the World Bank-supported HOPE Governance Programme after excelling in education and healthcare reforms

Five states will receive a combined $15 million in performance-based incentives under the World Bank-supported HOPE Governance Programme after emerging as the best-performing states in the implementation of key education and healthcare reforms.

The National Coordinator of the HOPE Governance Programme, Assad Hassan, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during a retreat for commissioners, permanent secretaries and directors of budget and planning from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The programme, domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, approved a total of $27 million in incentives for states that successfully achieved the Year Zero Disbursement-Linked Results under the programme.

The incentives are based on the findings and recommendations of the Interim Independent Verification Agent, which assessed states’ performance in meeting the programme’s Disbursement-Linked Indicators.

A breakdown of the incentives showed that Bayelsa, Borno, Kano, Kebbi and Yobe states emerged as the biggest beneficiaries.

The five states will receive $1.5 million each for meeting the requirements under Disbursement-Linked Result 2.1, which focuses on the adoption of comprehensive guidelines for the preparation and submission of consolidated work plans for state basic education budgets.

The same five states also qualified for another $1.5 million each under Disbursement-Linked Result 2.2, which measures the adoption of comprehensive guidelines for the preparation and submission of consolidated work plans for state primary healthcare budgets.

This HOPE Governance incentives package represents one of the first major reward mechanisms under the programme and underscores the growing use of performance-based financing to drive reforms in Nigeria’s education and healthcare sectors.