27, July 2026
The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, has exposed lingering governance gaps in Nigeria’s health and education sectors, as it unveiled three follow-up assessment reports and called for sweeping institutional reforms to strengthen accountability and service delivery.
The reports, presented in Abuja on Monday, reviewed the implementation of earlier anti-corruption recommendations issued to the National Health Insurance Authority, NHIA, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, the Universal Basic Education Commission, UBEC, and selected State Universal Basic Education Boards, SUBEBs.
ICPC Chairman, Dr. Musa Aliyu, SAN, said the exercise underscores the Commission’s growing focus on preventing corruption by strengthening institutional systems rather than relying solely on prosecutions. He noted that the Commission’s mandate empowers it to identify vulnerabilities in public institutions and recommend reforms to prevent corruption before it occurs.
According to Aliyu, the follow-up assessments measured how far previous recommendations had been implemented, highlighted areas of progress, identified unresolved weaknesses, and proposed further reforms. “The value of system studies lies not merely in producing reports but in implementing their recommendations. Their true impact is measured by improvements in governance, accountability, transparency and service delivery,” he said.
He explained that the reviews were not designed to apportion blame but to encourage continuous institutional improvement. Aliyu said NHIA, NPHCDA and UBEC were selected because of their strategic roles in delivering essential services to millions of Nigerians, adding that stronger governance in the agencies would help safeguard public funds and restore public confidence.
Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, warned that corruption risk assessments would have little impact unless recommendations translate into reforms. As part of the EU-backed Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Programme II, he identified persistent risks including leakages in health insurance payments, diversion of medicines and vaccines, ghost workers, fraudulent enrolments, procurement irregularities, and abandoned school projects.
Onyekpere advocated wider deployment of digital governance systems for real-time monitoring of health insurance, primary healthcare and education projects. He also recommended electronic procurement, stronger whistleblower protection, improved staff welfare, capacity building, and enhanced independent oversight to reduce human discretion in public administration.
Chairman of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Prof. Tunji Olaopa, said corruption prevention through institutional reforms offers a more sustainable solution than enforcement alone.
He urged public institutions to embrace technology-driven governance, transparent recruitment, conflict-of-interest declarations and ethical leadership. Aliyu reaffirmed ICPC’s commitment to collaborate with MDAs and partners to ensure implementation and monitoring of the recommendations.
