Nigeria Targets 30% Maternal, 20% Neonatal Mortality Reduction by 2028

The Federal Government has launched a new incentive programme aimed at increasing the utilisation of maternal and newborn healthcare services and reducing preventable maternal and neonatal deaths across Nigeria.

The incentives were flagged off on Monday at the State House, Abuja, by the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, under the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII).

The initiative is designed to address barriers preventing pregnant women and newborns from accessing timely and quality healthcare, while strengthening ongoing government efforts to improve maternal and child survival.

Speaking at the event, Senator Tinubu said the initiative represented another important step towards ensuring that every Nigerian child has a healthy start in life and that no woman dies while giving birth.

She said the intervention was aligned with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritises human capital development and improved health outcomes.

According to her, reducing maternal and newborn deaths requires deliberate interventions that tackle the challenges women and families face during pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period.

The First Lady also called for stronger collaboration among government institutions, healthcare providers, development partners, communities and other stakeholders to ensure that interventions produce measurable improvements in maternal and newborn survival.

She commended the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, and his team for their commitment to improving the health sector.

“It’s been a joy working with you. You work so passionately, even if people don’t know, not just locally but internationally,” she said.

Senator Tinubu added that the minister’s ideas and commitment had made her work easier, saying, “What you have brought to this table has made it easy for me to do the job whenever you come, even no matter how tired I get. God bless you.”

She also applauded the ministry’s team for their dedication to providing services for Nigerians.

60,000 women receive free C-sections
Speaking at the event, Pate said MAMII was developed under the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative to address both the supply and demand sides of maternal healthcare.

He said the initiative focuses on strengthening primary healthcare facilities, human resources, essential medical commodities and affordability of services.

The minister stressed that pregnancy was not a disease and that no woman should lose her life while giving birth.

He disclosed that more than 60,000 women had received free Caesarean sections and other emergency obstetric services through the National Health Insurance Authority, while more than 120,000 frontline health workers had been retrained.

Pate added that thousands of healthcare facilities had been revitalised, while more than 6,000 women affected by obstetric fistula had received corrective treatment and empowerment support.

He said the incentives being introduced under MAMII were intended to encourage pregnant women to access antenatal care, skilled birth attendance and other essential maternal and newborn services.

The minister also highlighted the importance of maternal nutrition, including multiple micronutrient supplementation, linking the intervention to the Community Food Bank Initiative.

He said well-nourished mothers were essential to developing the human capital required for Nigeria’s future.

Pate urged state governments and commissioners for health to sustain and expand the gains recorded under the initiative, stressing that states were closer to communities and had a critical role to play in improving health outcomes.

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, said Nigeria’s maternal mortality burden remained unacceptably high.

Salako, in his welcome remarks, said the 2023–24 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey indicated that a Nigerian woman faced approximately a one-in-19 lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes.

He added that Nigeria accounted for nearly 29 per cent of global maternal deaths, underscoring the need for sustained and targeted interventions.

According to him, MAMII, launched by the Federal Government in November 2024, targets 172 Local Government Areas across 33 states, representing about 20 per cent of the country’s LGAs but accounting for approximately 55 per cent of maternal deaths.

The initiative aims to reduce maternal mortality by 30 per cent and neonatal mortality by 20 per cent in the targeted areas by 2028, while providing free, timely and comprehensive care to about 2.9 million pregnant women.

Salako disclosed that more than 250 health facilities were currently implementing MAMII in Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Ogun states, among others.

He said more than 32,000 women and 1,700 newborns had already benefited from emergency obstetric and neonatal care under the programme.

He further disclosed that the National Emergency Medical Treatment and Ambulance System (NEMSAS) had transported nearly 79,000 beneficiaries, about 60 per cent of whom were pregnant women, to appropriate healthcare facilities.

The minister also said fourth-visit antenatal attendance in MAMII LGAs increased by 20 per cent in one quarter.

Salako explained that the new incentives were designed to reinforce behaviours that could save lives, particularly early antenatal registration, facility-based delivery and postnatal follow-up.

Both ministers commended President Tinubu, the First Lady, health sector agencies, state governments and development partners, including UNICEF, UNFPA, USAID and the World Health Organisation, for supporting efforts to reduce preventable maternal and newborn deaths.

The Federal Government said the initiative would boost demand for essential maternal and newborn healthcare services while supporting health facilities and frontline workers to provide timely and quality care.