Distribution of health facilities in Nigeria: Implications and options for Universal Health Coverage

Background Nigeria is considering adopting Universal Health Coverage (UHC) as an official policy target to ensure access to quality health care services for her population without financial hardship. To facilitate discussion on the topic, the President of Nigeria convened a UHC summit in March 2014 to discuss Nigeria's options and strategies to achieve UHC. A strategy for achieving UHC requires analysis of the available infrastructure to deliver the services. We review the geographic and sectoral distribution of health facilities in Nigeria and discuss implications on the UHC strategy selected. Methods Secondary analysis of data from the Federal Ministry of Health's facility register was performed to assess the geographic and sectoral distribution of health facilities in Nigeria. Additionally, an extensive literature review was conducted to understand UHC strategies used by various countries and the associated health facility requirements. Results Primary health facilities make up 88% of health facilities in Nigeria while secondary and tertiary health facilities make up 12% and 0.25%, respectively. There are more government‐owned health facilities than privately owned health facilities (67% vs 33%). Secondary health facilities are predominantly privately owned. The ratio of public to private health facilities is much higher in the northern part of the country than in the southern part. Conclusions The distribution of health facilities across Nigeria is nonuniform. As such, a UHC strategy must be responsive to the variation in health facility distribution across the country. Additional investments are needed in some parts of the country to improve access to tertiary health facilities and leverage private sector capacity.