Only 37 per cent of Nigeria’s household population has access to basic handwashing facilities with soap and water, raising concerns over the spread of preventable infections, the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) has said.

Speaking in Lagos, the foundation’s Director of Programming and Reporting, Dr Osinachi Onyeoziri, disclosed this during the commemoration of the 2026 Global Handwashing Day on October 15, saying improved hand hygiene remained one of the simplest and most cost-effective ways of preventing infections and protecting public health.

While citing the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, Onyeoziri said the figures highlighted the need for sustained hygiene education and improved access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, particularly in schools and communities.

He said, “Washing our hands with soap and clean water is not just a personal habit but one of the most practical and cost-effective public health practices that help prevent the spread of infections, protect our families and communities, and contribute to healthier schools.”

The event, held under the theme: “Be a Handwashing Hero,” brought together students, teachers, government representatives and development partners to promote proper handwashing practices and encourage children to become hygiene ambassadors in their schools and homes.

According to Onyeoziri, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 1.4 million deaths could have been prevented through adequate water, sanitation and hygiene services in 2019, while unsafe hand hygiene was linked to 356,000 deaths from acute respiratory infections during the same period.

He added that handwashing could reduce diarrhoea-related illnesses and respiratory infections, while helping to reduce school absenteeism associated with preventable diseases.

The WBFA director said the foundation, in partnership with Reckitt, had been implementing the Dettol Hygiene Quest programme to promote hygiene education among schoolchildren, pregnant women, new mothers and community members.

He further disclosed that the programme reached 443,595 people across Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, and other participating locations during its first two implementation phases between 2022 and 2025.

According to him, the beneficiaries included 282,108 students, 137 pregnant women and new mothers, and 48,110 community members.

He added that the programme established 1,134 student hygiene ambassadors across 567 schools, enabling pupils to encourage their peers to adopt proper hygiene practices.

Onyeoziri added that about 5,000 healthcare workers had also been trained in infection prevention and control through the foundation’s SafeClean programme.

He said assessments conducted under the intervention indicated reductions in communicable disease-related illnesses of 34 per cent in Abuja, 32 per cent in the Federal Capital Territory and 16 per cent in Lagos, although the specific locations and methodology of the assessment were not detailed in her remarks.

The foundation, she added, was targeting 750,000 students in 750 schools, alongside 90,000 pregnant women and new mothers across 78 healthcare facilities in Lagos, Kano and other participating states by the end of 2026.

Also speaking, Reckitt’s representative, Ayomide Bello, said sustained investment in hygiene education was necessary to translate public health messages into lasting behavioural changes.

Bello said the Dettol Hygiene Quest programme had recorded improvements in hygiene knowledge among participating students, with gains of up to 32 per cent reported in the previous year.

She added that the initiative had reached about 1.2 million schoolchildren and pregnant women over the preceding three years, as the company worked towards its target of impacting six million people by 2030.

“No child should miss school due to an illness that proper handwashing can prevent,” Bello said, urging students to share the hygiene lessons with their families and communities.

During a practical demonstration at the event, WBFA’s Aligbe Florence taught students to wash their hands with soap and clean water for at least 20 seconds, paying attention to areas that are often missed, including between the fingers and around the nails.

The facilitators also urged pupils to wash their hands before eating or handling food, after using the toilet and whenever their hands became visibly dirty.

They explained that hands could transfer disease-causing microorganisms from contaminated surfaces to the eyes, nose, mouth and food, stressing that water alone was not as effective as washing with soap and water.

Consequently, the foundation called on government authorities, school administrators, teachers and parents to support access to functional handwashing facilities and make hygiene education a routine part of children’s learning and daily lives.