Nigeria, World Bank Plan Recruitment of Teachers and Healthcare Workers

Nigeria and the World Bank are moving towards the recruitment of more teachers and primary healthcare workers as part of a broader effort to address manpower shortages in critical sectors across the country.

This development is being driven under the World Bank-backed HOPE Governance Programme of the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, which has begun working with state governments to improve recruitment and deployment systems. The initiative is not yet a direct nationwide recruitment exercise but a structured plan to support states in hiring and effectively deploying personnel where they are most needed.

National Coordinator of the Programme, Dr. Assad Hassan, disclosed this during the HOPE Governance Programme Implementation Support Mission for the North East held in Gombe. According to him, the focus is on strengthening both recruitment processes and the fair distribution of workers across underserved areas.

“We are also trying to look at how we can improve the recruitment of teachers as well as primary health care workers. Not only recruitment but also equitable deployment of teachers and primary health care workers,” Hassan said.

He noted that one of the major challenges facing the system is the reluctance or difficulty in deploying workers to hard-to-reach communities. The programme, he explained, is designed to complement ongoing efforts by both the Federal Government and state governments in improving service delivery in basic education and primary health care.

The recruitment push is tied to the Disbursement Linked Results (DLRs) agreed between the World Bank and participating states under a $500 million intervention programme. Under this arrangement, states that meet specific targets, including improvements in staffing and service delivery, will receive funding support to scale their efforts.

Hassan explained that the Programme-for-Results model being used by the World Bank is structured to reward performance. States that achieve the agreed DLRs will gain access to additional resources, which can then be reinvested into strengthening the education and healthcare sectors.

Beyond recruitment, the programme is also focused on broader reforms. It aims to promote accountability, improve governance systems and ensure that public spending delivers measurable outcomes for citizens.

“The HOPE Governance Programme provides us with an added opportunity to see us strengthen our systems in terms of accountability and also ensuring that public resources deliver real impact for citizens across service delivery for primary health care and basic education,” he said.

He further stressed the importance of sustaining reforms, noting that long-term impact will depend on how well states institutionalise the changes introduced under the programme.

“We need to keep asking ourselves, how do we sustain the gains we have made? How do we institutionalise the reforms that we have made thus far because without this, we cannot really make impact on our citizens,” Hassan added.

The programme has also drawn commendation for efforts already underway at the state level. Hassan praised the Gombe State Government for hosting the Implementation Support Mission and for its commitment to improving both sectors, particularly its target of reducing out-of-school children by 50 per cent by 2030.

Also speaking, World Bank Task Team Lead for the HOPE Governance Programme, Ikechukwu Nweje, said the mission was organised to review progress made by states and encourage knowledge sharing among them to improve implementation outcomes.

The Secretary to the Gombe State Government, Prof. Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi, officially declared the session open on behalf of the governor.

States from the North East, alongside Plateau and Jigawa, participated in the mission, reflecting growing collaboration across regions as Nigeria and the World Bank advance plans that could lead to increased recruitment of teachers and healthcare workers nationwide.