Niger State Ministry of Health has organized a two-day Joint Annual Review(JAR) meeting of the health sector, with the theme: Review Progress, Shaping The Future, commenced on Monday, 22nd to Tuesday, 23rd June 2026, held in Minna, the state capital.

Deputy Governor of Niger State, Comrade Yakubu Garba, who officially declared the meeting opened, mandated the Ministry of Health and its agencies, development partners, as well as stakeholders, to be more realistic on some of the activities they had outlined for 2025/2026.

Comrade Garba added, “We are almost half a year, hence the need for us to look at the previous activities, which we have not done, how do we re-programme and position ourselves for a more realistic annual operational plan for 2027?”. He emphasized.

Deputy Governor, who spoke through the Commissioner of Health, Dr Murtala Mohammad Bagana, applauded the management of the ministry and its agencies for their significant impact on the health care sector of the state, assured of the state government’s unwavering support to enable them to discharge their functions effectively.

In his keynote address, the Commissioner of Health, Dr.Murtala Mohammad Bagana noted that the landmark achievements of his Ministry and its agencies in the last six months were a result of adequate coordination.

Bagana explained that there are specific roles of peace around the implementation of the ministry activities, such as processes and programme implementation, saying that if you don’t think about the people, you may end up failing.

He hinted that what the ministry is trying to do and its agencies, is to bring all the stakeholders together on one platform.

According to him. We have at the highest level of authority, what we call, the state oversight committee on health, which is the highest decision-making body that brings together all the ministries, agencies, partners, and other ministries such as Budget, Finance, Water Resources, and Local Gov’t, emphasizing that coordination is very important”.

The Commissioner appreciated Governor Bago for his unwavering support of the health sector, pointing out that the governor has given the ministry an enabling environment to put the right people at the helm of affairs in order to achieve the set objectives.

Earlier in his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr Abdullahi Imam, who is also the head of technical team of the Joint Annual Health Sector Review Meeting, explained that the annual event was not a mere meeting, saying that it is the health sector Four months accountability platform, adding that the meeting also provide opportunity for stakeholders to assess their performance against agreed target, review the implementation of the annual operational plan, identify areas requiring improvement.

Dr Imam further stated that the annual joint review meeting enables the stakeholders in the health sector to operate the principle of one plan, one budget, one report, and one conversation.

The Permanent Secretary has assured the ministry’s commitment to revitalize the health sector, both at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, in order to deliver better health services to the people of the state who deserve it.

Over Sixty stakeholders drawn from the health sector, development partners, traditional Institutions, media, Niger State Planning Commission, Ministry for Local Gov’t, Water Resources, office of the Statistician General, religious leaders, as well as people living with disabilities attended the meeting.

Highlights of the event were the technical session, where facilitators presented papers, as well as the question-and-answer session.