After almost four years of exponential capital investment , engendering four brand-new general hospitals, three hundred and twenty-six Primary Health Centres under renovation, a new Trauma Centre, free antenatal care for over one hundred and sixty-one thousand women, 2026 is the year Anambra moves from construction sites to full operational excellence and completes the last stage of a seamless, life-saving health system.
The thirteen per cent increase in the 2026 project for the heath sector is more about finishing, equipping, staffing, and scaling what has already been built, while adding two projects that will redefine healthcare in South-East Nigeria for decades.
Accordingly, among areas of new healthcare investments by the administration of Governor Chukwuma Soludo, is the completion of the Anambra State College of Nursing Sciences.
The ultra-modern campus should reach one hundred per cent completion and begin admitting its first set of students in the 2026/2027 academic session, ending Anambra’s decades-long dependence on other states for nursing training.
The construction and equipping of the new Specialist Teaching Hospital, with Oncology focus, will also follow. This will be Anambra’s first purpose-built tertiary facility for cancer care, cardiology, and advanced diagnostics, to drastically reduce medical tourism by Nigerians to India and Egypt.
In the final-phase renovation and equipping of all three hundred and twenty-six Primary Health Centres, solar power, boreholes, staff quarters, diagnostic equipment, and drug revolving funds will be fully installed. Every ward in Anambra will have a functional, Primary Health Centres by the end of 2026.
Maternal health is crucial to the overall healthcare effectiveness. So, there will be scaling of the free maternal and child health programme. Beyond the existing free antenatal and delivery services, which is already the most successful in Nigeria with zero maternal mortality in recorded cases, the 2026 budget will expand coverage to free treatment of common childhood illnesses and selected chronic diseases for the poorest families.
Towards optimal operational take-off of the four new general hospitals, full staffing, specialist recruitment and equipping of the facilities commissioned in the first term will be implemented. The Soludo administration will also strengthen emergency and referral systems with the expansion of the state ambulance fleet, telemedicine hubs in PHCs, and integration of the Trauma Centre with the new teaching hospital.
Anambra’s healthcare investments will ensure the retention of medical talents.
The new College of Nursing and Specialist Teaching Hospital will reverse the brain drain of doctors and nurses, making Anambra a net importer of medical professionals for the first time.
. Ndi Anambra should expect a boost to life expectancy and productivity. A healthier population means more working-age adults, fewer sick days, and higher economic output which is the ultimate dividend of human-capital investment.
By the end of 2026, Anambra will possess one of the most complete, equitable, and modern public health ecosystems in sub-Saharan Africa, built from the village ward to tertiary specialist care, all under one integrated system.
Health, in Governor Soludo’s vision, is not an expenditure line; it is the foundation on which every other ambition and development ultimately stands or falls.
