By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Correspondent
SEVERE AID cuts by the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) are taking a heavy toll on millions of Nigerians, disrupting health services, nutrition programmes, and humanitarian support across the country.
Donor-funded clinics are shutting down, maternal health services are stalling, and nutrition centres are closing as international support dries up.
However, Nigeria’s Federal Government has pledged to fill the gap, but citizens are yet to feel any significant impact.
According to BusinessDay, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development has not announced a comprehensive response plan.
Mdevaan Nyitor, a knowledge management and communications specialist at Palladium, an implementing partner of USAID’s Integrated Health Programme (IHP), confirmed that the cuts have dismantled critical services.
“The programme has been shut down completely, leaving hundreds of thousands of expectant mothers and children without access to skilled care,” she said.
The USAID IHP was designed to strengthen Nigeria’s primary healthcare system, with interventions in reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health, alongside nutrition and malaria control.
It supported 160 healthcare facilities in the Federal Capital Territory alone, including 92 primary health centres, 12 general hospitals, and 56 private health centres.
Before its closure, the programme helped avert 104,903 unintended pregnancies, prevented 533 maternal deaths, and saved 2,615 children’s lives.
The crisis is particularly severe in the North-East.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reported that 300,000 malnourished children in Borno, Adamawa, and Yobe states now face worsening hunger as funding shortages force the closure of more than 150 nutrition centres.
WFP said its food and nutrition stocks ran out in early July, with emergency assistance for 1.3 million people in the region set to be suspended.
“Without immediate funding, millions of vulnerable people will face impossible choices: endure worsening hunger, migrate in search of help, or risk falling into the hands of extremist groups,” WFP warned.
The consequences are already visible. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that cases of malnourished children suffering from nutritional oedema rose by 208 percent between January and June 2025 compared to the same period last year.
At least 652 children have died in MSF-supported facilities this year due to delayed or denied access to treatment.
David Stevenson, WFP’s country director for Nigeria, warned of the wider implications. “WFP’s operations in northeast Nigeria will collapse without immediate, sustained funding.
“This is no longer just a humanitarian crisis, it’s a growing threat to regional stability, as families pushed beyond their limits are left with nowhere to turn,” he said.
According to him, nearly 31 million Nigerians are now facing acute hunger.
Figures from Action Against Hunger project that 5.4 million children and 787,000 pregnant or breastfeeding women will suffer acute malnutrition in 2025.
The federal government has begun limited interventions to cushion the crisis. An official at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare stated that efforts are under way to ramp up domestic funding, though the scale of need far outweighs current resources.
The government has sought stronger partnerships with the European Union, the World Health Organization, the United Nations, and private-sector philanthropists to replace shrinking aid inflows with direct investments.
As part of its emergency measures, the government approved N4.8 billion to procure 150,000 HIV treatment packs over four months to prevent life-threatening treatment gaps for people living with HIV.
An additional N300 billion ($200 million) has been allocated to offset shortages in vaccine supply, maternal health services, and disease control, including malaria and HIV programmes.
Despite these allocations, Nigeria faces an estimated annual funding shortfall of $985 million.
According to the Centre for Global Development, the country receives an average of $18 per capita in donor support each year, with the United States contributing 24 percent, or $4.32 per person.
Nigeria’s population of 228 million translates into $4.1 billion in total official development assistance in 2023, of which the United States contributed $984.96 million through USAID.
Health experts have highlighted the urgent need for Nigeria to reduce its dependency on foreign aid.
Renowned virologist Oyewale Tomori, a former advisor to the World Health Organization, described the aid cuts as a wake-up call for Nigeria to reorder priorities.
He stressed that global funding will continue to shrink, cautioning that delays in building domestic resilience could worsen the crisis in the future.
Olayinka Oladimeji, former director of Primary Healthcare Systems Development at the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said Nigeria has the capacity to scale up local funding if government resources are properly harnessed.
