AFRICA NEEDS $4.3BN ANNUALLY FOR HEALTH WORKERS — CDC
Africa needs an estimated $4.3bn annually to expand its community health workforce to two million workers by 2030, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has said.
The Acting Deputy Director-General of Africa CDC, Dr Raji Tajudeen, made the call at a high-level ministerial gathering on community health in Abuja, urging African governments to turn policy agreements into concrete financial commitments.
Tajudeen, who represented Africa CDC Director-General Dr Jean Kaseya, said member states must strengthen domestic financing, reform payroll systems and integrate community health workers into their national health systems.
According to the Continental Community Health Programme Acceleration Plan 2026–2030, Africa had deployed 1,059,085 community health workers as of May 2026, leaving a shortfall of approximately 941,000 workers against the continent’s two-million target.
The plan estimates that achieving the target under its ambitious investment scenario would require cumulative funding of about $28bn by 2030, through a phased financing approach.
Tajudeen called on African countries to move beyond technical agreements and make specific commitments to ensure community health workers are adequately funded, trained and supported to provide essential healthcare services.
Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, also urged delegates to secure concrete commitments for expanding and sustaining the workforce. He called on participating countries to develop or update their national community health plans within the next 12 to 18 months.
The meeting is expected to advance a coordinated continental approach to financing, training, deploying and retaining community health workers. Participants are also expected to finalise the Abuja Communiqué and consider continental tools for monitoring progress and standardising training.
The Africa CDC plan highlights funding and recognition gaps across the continent. It states that only 68 per cent of African Union member states formally recognise community health workers as part of their national health workforce, while 85 per cent rely on donors for at least 49 per cent of their community health programme financing.
Community health workers play a vital role in delivering health education, monitoring diseases, referring patients to healthcare facilities and supporting maternal and child health services, particularly in underserved communities.
