The Federal Government has launched a new incentive programme aimed at getting more pregnant women to seek timely antenatal, delivery and postnatal care in communities with high maternal and newborn mortality.
The scheme, introduced on Monday in Abuja, will cover 172 Local Government Areas across 33 states under the Federal Government’s Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative, MAMII.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, said the intervention was necessary given Nigeria’s disproportionate contribution to the global maternal mortality burden.
According to Salako, Nigeria accounts for close to 29 per cent of maternal deaths worldwide, while a Nigerian woman faces approximately a one-in-19 lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes. He contrasted this with a risk of about one in 4,900 in the most developed countries.
“Behind every one of these figures is a mother, a child, a family and a community diminished,” the minister said.
MAMII, launched in November 2024, focuses on 172 LGAs, representing about 20 per cent of Nigeria’s LGAs but accounting for 55 per cent of maternal deaths.
The government is targeting a 30 per cent reduction in maternal mortality and a 20 per cent reduction in neonatal mortality in the selected areas by 2028. It also plans to provide free and comprehensive maternal and newborn care to approximately 2.9 million pregnant women.
Salako said the programme had already recorded progress in Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Ogun states, where more than 250 health facilities are participating.
He disclosed that over 32,000 women and 1,700 newborns had received emergency obstetric and neonatal care, while nearly 79,000 beneficiaries had been transported to health facilities through the National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System, NEMSAS. Pregnant women accounted for about 60 per cent of those transported.
The minister also reported a 20 per cent increase in attendance for the fourth antenatal visit within a single quarter in MAMII-supported areas.
He said the newly introduced incentives would reinforce behaviours associated with safer pregnancies, particularly early antenatal registration, delivery in health facilities and postnatal follow-up.
Salako said the Federal Government intended to expand the interventions beyond the current high-burden communities and eventually scale them nationwide.
He credited organisations including the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, UNFPA, the Global Financing Facility and USAID with providing technical and financial support to strengthen maternal and newborn healthcare.
The minister also acknowledged First Lady Oluremi Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Initiative, citing support for midwives and frontline health workers, retraining of 120,000 workers, distribution of professional kits and the Free to Shine campaign against mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis.
He said more than N100 billion had been mobilised through the initiative to support vulnerable women, children and families.
“Our objective is to bring maternal and newborn services closer to women, particularly those living in high-burden communities,” Salako said. “Help is coming closer, and it is coming faster.”
