The World Bank criticises weak institutional capacity at sub-national levels for the dismal performance of Nigeria’s $700m WASH programme, with only 14% of funds disbursed

Weak capacity at the sub-national level has been identified by the World Bank as the primary reason for the limited progress of Nigeria’s $700m Sustainable Urban and Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Programme.

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The initiative, designed to bolster access to vital water, sanitation, and hygiene services and strengthen sector institutions across participating states, has seen minimal advancement almost four years post-approval.

This concerning disclosure was made in the World Bank’s latest Implementation Status and Results Report for Nigeria’s WASH Programme-for-Results, dated June 3, 2025.

A mid-term review conducted in late 2024 pinpointed “delays in budget allocations and programme execution [were] due to a lack of understanding of the Programme-for-Results instrument among state-level decision-makers.”

This poor grasp of the PforR structure has demonstrably hampered implementation, particularly for crucial infrastructure-related activities.

In an attempt to address these systemic issues, the programme underwent restructuring in February 2025. This involved a revision of key disbursement-linked indicators and the introduction of scalability, aligning with the 2022 global Policy, Institutional, and Regulatory framework and Nigeria’s national sanitation strategy.

Despite these adjustments, performance remains significantly below expectations. Out of a revised commitment of $670.21m under the programme, a mere $93.59m had been disbursed as of May 2025 – representing a meagre 14 per cent of the total funds.

The World Bank has rated progress towards the development objectives and overall implementation as “moderately unsatisfactory.” With a target of 6.1 million people to be reached with basic drinking water by 2027, a disheartening 58,585 have benefited thus far.

The bank attributes this significant shortfall to “delays in procurement and poor planning by the states.” It noted, “The number initially reported by the states for verification was 83,580 people…

The shortfall in achieving the desired targets can be attributed to the delayed commencement of the procurement process by the states.”

Only four states – Delta, Ekiti, Gombe, and Katsina – submitted results for verification in the second year of the programme, with Katsina accounting for the largest share of beneficiaries at 36,835.

The report also painted a bleak picture for sanitation infrastructure. Katsina was the sole state to submit results under the sanitation indicator, yet, “out of the 86 sanitation facilities that were reported by the state, only one fully adhered to the stipulated standards and requirements,” the report revealed.

Institutional WASH facilities in schools and healthcare centres similarly showed poor performance. Of 43 facilities submitted for verification, only 22 met the required standards.

The bank explained, “The lag was due to the late start of the procurement process in some of the states and the late understanding of the design specifications for institutional WASH facilities.” Further breakdown indicated only 18 urban and four rural facilities were verified across Ekiti, Gombe, and Katsina.

While State Programme Implementation Units have been established in all seven participating states, and 98 per cent of required staff recruited, systemic challenges persist.

The use of disparate accounting systems across states, for instance, has hindered financial reporting, with the bank observing, “The PIUs are using different accounting software, making it extremely difficult for the reports to be consolidated.”

Despite the presence of gender-based violence committees and grievance redress mechanisms, other performance indicators remain poor. Notably, none of the newly created engineering or technical roles have been filled by women, and leadership roles for women in WASH community groups remain anecdotal, often limited to financial positions.

The performance indicator on access to improved sanitation facilities in urban areas remains at zero, and no results have been recorded for community-wide sanitation efforts such as open defecation-free verification.

“There has been a lot of confusion regarding this DLI and no state so far (even those declaring entire LGAs ODF) has achieved any results under it as of Programme Year 2,” the bank stated.

The World Bank cautioned that despite ongoing works in states like Kaduna, Ekiti, and Plateau, the programme risks falling far short of its objectives if state-level capacity issues are not urgently addressed.

The bank rated both political and fiduciary risks as “high,” maintaining an overall risk rating of “substantial.” The programme, which became effective in January 2022, is set to close by June 2027.