UNFPA, Signify partner to illuminate 10,000 healthcare facilities in seven states
…₦-free solar intervention targets underserved communities, strengthens maternal healthcare, emergency response, safety of women and girls
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the Signify Foundation have entered into a three-year partnership to deploy 10,000 solar lighting solutions to healthcare facilities in seven states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in a move to address poor lighting and improve access to essential health services in underserved communities.
The initiative, which targets hard-to-reach communities, is designed to tackle one of the often-overlooked challenges confronting healthcare delivery in Nigeria: inadequate and unreliable electricity, particularly in facilities providing maternal and reproductive healthcare services.
Under the partnership, 4,170 Philips Essential SmartBright solar streetlights and 5,830 solar floodlights will be installed across selected healthcare facilities in Borno, Yobe, Lagos, Ogun, Sokoto, Akwa Ibom and the FCT.
The first consignment of 3,334 units, comprising 1,390 solar streetlights and 1,944 solar floodlights, is expected to arrive in Nigeria before the end of 2026.
The intervention is expected to improve the safety, accessibility and operational capacity of health facilities, particularly those serving women, girls, adolescents and other vulnerable populations.
Facilities to benefit include safe spaces, youth-friendly centres, obstetric fistula centres and MAMII health facilities, where reliable lighting is critical to ensuring that patients can access services in secure and dignified environments.
The partnership also comes against the backdrop of persistent electricity challenges in underserved communities, where inadequate lighting can constrain the delivery of healthcare, particularly at night, and expose patients and health workers to additional safety risks.
For maternal healthcare facilities, the availability of reliable lighting is particularly important for emergency deliveries, obstetric interventions and other situations requiring immediate medical attention outside normal working hours.
UNFPA Resident Representative in Nigeria, Ms Muriel Mafico, said reliable electricity remained one of the strongest enablers of quality healthcare, describing the partnership as an important intervention towards improving health outcomes in both development and humanitarian settings.
She said the provision of solar lighting would strengthen healthcare delivery by improving local infrastructure and enabling communities to extend service hours.
“This partnership will strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare delivery system by improving local lighting infrastructure.
“Reliable lighting will enable communities to extend service hours, strengthen emergency and maternal health responses, and improve confidentiality and safety for survivors in designated safe spaces. It will also create opportunities for youth engagement,” Mafico said.
She added that illuminating critical community facilities would support safer environments, strengthen community resilience and contribute to better outcomes for vulnerable populations.
Beyond healthcare delivery, the initiative is expected to improve protection and dignity for women and girls, particularly survivors of gender-based violence who require access to confidential support services in safe spaces.
The lighting intervention will also benefit adolescents and young people accessing youth-friendly centres, where a secure and welcoming environment is essential to encouraging them to seek information and essential health services.
Director of the Signify Foundation, Yue Cui, said the partnership reflected the importance of providing healthcare facilities with the infrastructure required to deliver services safely and effectively.
She said quality healthcare depended not only on medical personnel, medicines and equipment but also on creating safe and adequately lit environments for patients and health workers.
“Solar lighting is a practical solution, it is easy to install and maintain, and can serve communities for years.
“At a time when humanitarian resources are stretched, we hope this partnership shows how our interventions can make essential healthcare services safer and more accessible,” Cui said.
The partnership builds on previous interventions by the organisations in Syria and Sudan, extending their collaboration on sustainable lighting solutions to underserved communities in Nigeria.
The three-year programme also highlights the growing role of renewable energy interventions in strengthening essential social infrastructure, particularly in communities where conventional electricity supply remains unreliable or inaccessible.
UNFPA, the United Nations’ sexual and reproductive health agency, works towards a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled.
The Signify Foundation, an independent non-profit organisation primarily funded by Signify, works to expand access to lighting among underserved communities across the world.
With the first consignment expected before the end of 2026, the partnership is expected to provide an additional layer of support to healthcare facilities, particularly those operating in difficult humanitarian and development environments.
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