Anambra faults Philips Consulting ranking placing state 34th

By Vincent Ujumadu

The Anambra State government has faulted the 2025 State Performance Index released by Philips Consulting Limited (PCL), which ranked the state 34th.

In a statement, the Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mrs. Chiamaka Nnake, questioned the credibility of the report, wondering how Anambra, ranked 8th in 2024, could suddenly drop to 34th. She described the index as “methodologically weak and misleading.”

According to her, PCL, originally known for human resource services, appears to have ventured into state ranking without adequate training or methodological rigor. “The 2025 PCL index raises fundamental questions: What capacity does PCL have to rank states? How was the research designed, and on what basis were conclusions drawn?” she asked.

Nnake faulted the sample size of 78 respondents used for a state with over six million people, noting that by Cochran’s formula, at least 385 respondents were required for a 5% margin of error. She also criticized the gender imbalance in the survey, where 76% of respondents were male, making it unrepresentative.

She stressed that the report focused more on expenditure levels than on efficiency and impact, and failed to engage stakeholders or validate findings in Anambra communities.

Highlighting the state’s achievements, Nnake cited:

Education: Free education from nursery to SS3, 27% increase in primary enrolment, 8,115 teachers recruited, and numerous national and international awards.

Healthcare: Ranked No. 1 in Nigeria in the 2024 National Primary Healthcare Leadership Challenge, $1.2m award, free antenatal and delivery care for over 120,000 women, and public hospital patronage rising from 25% in 2022 to 73%.

Infrastructure: 842.2 km of roads awarded in three years, 546.3 km completed, including 150 km of dualized roads, bridges, and flyovers.

She argued that these tangible results contrast sharply with PCL’s ranking of Anambra 30th in health and 34th overall. “When international organizations rank Anambra at the top and PCL places it at the bottom, the credibility gap becomes impossible to ignore,” she said.

The Commissioner advised PCL to adopt rigorous statistical methods, conduct field engagement, and ensure impartial analysis. “You cannot sit in Lagos or Abuja and rely on what a handful of people ‘think’ to rank states. Anything less reduces serious work to propaganda,” she added.

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