FG targets 172 LGAs with maternal health incentives
… 29% of global maternal deaths occur in Nigeria, says Minister
By Chioma Obinna
The Federal Government on Monday launched a new incentive programme targeting pregnant women in 172 Local Government Areas, LGAs, across 33 states as part of efforts to reduce Nigeria’s persistently high maternal and newborn mortality.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, who disclosed this at the national flag-off of the Incentives to Increase Maternal and Newborn Care Services Utilization in Abuja, said Nigeria accounted for close to 29 per cent of global maternal deaths.
He said the initiative would encourage early antenatal care, facility-based delivery and postnatal follow-up, particularly in communities with the highest burden of maternal deaths.
Salako said: “A Nigerian woman faces roughly a 1-in-19 lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes, compared with 1-in-4,900 in the most developed countries, and our country alone accounts for close to 29 per cent of global maternal deaths.
“Behind every one of these figures is a mother, a child, a family and a community diminished.”
The minister said the incentive programme was the latest intervention under the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative, MAMII, launched by the Federal Government in November 2024.
According to him, MAMII deliberately targets 172 LGAs in 33 states, about 20 per cent of the country’s LGAs, which account for 55 per cent of maternal deaths.
He said the programme 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 said MAMII had already been implemented in states including Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Ogun, with more than 250 health facilities participating.
He disclosed that over 32,000 women and 1,700 newborns had so far benefited directly from emergency obstetric and neonatal care under the programme.
The minister also disclosed that nearly 79,000 beneficiaries had been transported to healthcare facilities through the National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System, NEMSAS, with pregnant women accounting for about 60 per cent of those transported.
“Through NEMSAS, our emergency medical services system, nearly 79,000 beneficiaries, roughly 60 per cent of them pregnant women, have been transported to care, cutting the fatal delays that so often cost lives,” he said.
Salako further said antenatal care utilisation was improving in areas covered by MAMII, noting that attendance for the fourth antenatal visit increased by 20 per cent in a single quarter.
He said the new incentives were designed to reinforce behaviours that could prevent avoidable maternal and newborn deaths.
“Today’s flag-off of incentives is our next deliberate step, rewarding and reinforcing the very behaviours we know save lives: early antenatal registration, facility delivery and postnatal follow-up,” Salako said.
He assured Nigerians that the Federal Government would build on the progress recorded under MAMII and expand the interventions nationwide.
“The promise of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR to Nigerian families and communities is to do more, scale up nationally and ensure that we have a Nigeria where no woman loses her life while trying to give life,” he said.
The minister attributed some of the progress recorded so far to partnerships with international development organisations, including the World Health Organisation, WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, the Global Financing Facility and USAID.
He said their technical and financial support had continued to strengthen Nigeria’s health system and expand access to maternal and newborn services.
Salako also commended First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, for her interventions through the Renewed Hope Initiative, particularly in supporting midwives and frontline health workers.
He said the First Lady had supported the distribution of professional kits to midwives across the six geopolitical zones, the retraining of 120,000 frontline health workers and the Free to Shine campaign aimed at eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis.
According to him, more than N100 billion had also been mobilised through the initiative to support vulnerable women, children and families.
Salako said the government’s objective was to bring maternal and newborn services closer to women, particularly those living in high-burden communities.
“Today we say to the women of Nigeria: help is coming closer, and it is coming faster. We are ready,” he said.
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