By Jeliii Gbadamosi
The Federal Government has reported a 60 per cent reduction in maternal deaths across communities covered by its Maternal and Newborn Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII) between 2024 and 2026.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during the third Nigeria Health Sector Joint Annual Review.
Pate attributed the reported improvement to increased access to skilled birth attendants, emergency referral services and better-equipped maternal healthcare facilities.
He said the government had recruited 19,758 skilled birth attendants across 22 states and trained 78,054 frontline health workers to improve healthcare delivery.
According to him, 91 per cent of Basic Health Care Provision Fund-supported facilities in MAMII communities now have at least two midwives or community health extension workers, compared with 12 per cent before the intervention.
The minister added that 99 per cent of the facilities had been connected to emergency referral systems, while 750,000 pregnant women had been identified and linked to functional healthcare facilities.
He disclosed that emergency transport services were operational in 171 of the initiative’s 172 local government areas, transporting 104,566 women and newborns.
Pate further said the government had re-equipped more than 300 secondary healthcare facilities to provide comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care, alongside over 500 primary healthcare centres equipped for basic emergency services.
On the free emergency obstetric care programme, he said nearly 100,000 services had been delivered within two years, including 80,906 caesarean sections and 6,059 vesicovaginal fistula repairs.
He added that participating facilities had recorded a 22 per cent decline in deaths arising from obstetric emergencies.
The minister also disclosed that skilled deliveries at facilities supported by the Basic Health Care Provision Fund increased from 4.8 million in 2023 to 7.9 million by the second quarter of 2026.
Similarly, antenatal care visits rose from six million to 8.7 million within the period.
Despite the reported progress, Pate acknowledged that Nigeria continued to face maternal and newborn health challenges, stressing the need for sustained investment in healthcare personnel, emergency response systems and functional medical facilities.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, said the government was targeting the expansion of MAMII to all 774 local government areas as part of efforts to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes nationwide.
