Examining the Health Outcomes of Nigeria’s Community Health Influencers and Promoters Programme: Evidence from South West and North Central States

This study examines the health outcome impacts of Nigeria's Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services programme (CHIPS) in selected communities across South West and North Central states, evaluating its effectiveness as a last-mile primary healthcare delivery strategy. The CHIPS programme, deployed as part of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, deploys community health volunteers at the household level to improve immunisation, antenatal care attendance, nutrition, and disease surveillance in underserved communities. Drawing on community health systems theory and recent primary healthcare evaluation literature from 2020 to 2024, the study employs a mixed-methods quasi-experimental design. Difference-in-differences analysis is applied to compare pre- and post-CHIPS deployment health outcome indicators in 18 programme communities versus matched comparison communities across Lagos, Ogun, Niger, and Kwara states. Data are sourced from the Health Management Information System supplemented by structured household surveys of 360 beneficiary women. Qualitative process data are gathered through focused discussions with CHIPS agents and local government health teams. The study expects to find positive programme effects on immunisation uptake and antenatal visit frequency, with more modest effects on facility delivery rates due to persistent supply-side gaps. Agent motivation and retention challenges are also examined. Findings will contribute rigorous evaluation evidence to the debate on community health worker programme design and scale-up in Nigeria's universal health coverage strategy. Keywords: community health, CHIPS programme, primary healthcare, South West Nigeria, quasi-experimental evaluation