Lagos, Nigeria.
The Kaduna State Ministry of Health, together with its agencies and development partners, successfully convened at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, for a 3-day retreat to chart a unified path forward in health reform. The retreat, held under the theme “From Insights to Impact: Consolidating Progress through One Perspective, One Plan, One Budget, One Report, and One Conversation”, focused on strategic reforms, systems strengthening, and actionable use of data to improve health outcomes.
The retreat was supported by the Gates Foundation, the Natview Foundation for Technology Innovation (NFTI), UNICEF, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI), and the Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF). Also in attendance were key partners in Kaduna’s health ecosystem, including SOLINA, Development Delivery Partners (DDP), the Lafiya Program, and several other stakeholders committed to improving health outcomes across the state.
In his keynote address, the Honourable Commissioner for the Planning and Budget Commission, Mukhtar Ahmed, emphasized Kaduna’s commitment to data-driven decision-making. He announced that the 2025 health budget saw a 25.8% increase from the previous year and highlighted an improved budget execution rate. This improvement is one of the major outcomes of last year’s retreat.
The three-day retreat featured discussions around the 2025 Annual Operational Plan (AOP), an assessment of the resolutions from the 2024 retreat, and detailed diagnostics on systemic bottlenecks. Sessions showcased new ideas like the updated Integrated Supportive Supervision (ISS), tracking health workers with biometric technology, improved facility data analysis, and new ways to ensure that health resources lead to real results in services.
Dr. Aisha Abubakar Sadiq, Permanent Secretary of the Kaduna State Ministry of Health, underscored the state’s ongoing dedication to evidence-based governance.
During his presentation, Dr. Bello Yusuf Jamoh, the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Board, emphasized the need to strengthen foundational systems for better health outcomes. He reiterated the state’s commitment to the “2+2 Agenda,” a focused strategy built around two critical input indicators, human resources and infrastructure, and two essential output indicators, service utilization and client satisfaction. According to him, this approach ensures that policy discussions and funding decisions remain centered on frontline realities, enabling practical improvements in the quality of care provided across the state.
More details from the 2025 Kaduna State Health Sector Retreat, including outcomes from the breakout sessions, commitments made by stakeholders, and next steps toward achieving health sector reforms, will be shared in the coming days.
