The Federal Government has recorded a 60 per cent reduction in facility-based maternal deaths in areas covered by its Maternal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII), following reforms that have expanded access to skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetric care, and primary healthcare services.
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, disclosed this at the 2026 Joint Annual Review (JAR) of the health sector, where he presented progress made under the health sector reforms of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Pate said skilled deliveries at facilities supported by the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) increased from 4.8 million in 2023 to 7.9 million in 2026, while the number of women completing four antenatal care visits rose from six million to 8.7 million.
He added that outpatient visits at the facilities increased from 32.4 million to 43 million, while the number of children receiving the third dose of the pentavalent vaccine rose from 1.2 million to 2.4 million within one year.
According to the minister, the improvements followed the revitalisation of 3,500 primary healthcare centres across the country, with another 900 undergoing work to expand access to essential health services.
He described the intervention as a significant step towards making primary healthcare facilities functional, commending state governments for partnering with the Federal Government to deliver the improvements.
Pate said the government had also intensified efforts to address shortages of skilled health workers, particularly midwives and community health workers, through recruitment across several states.
He disclosed that nearly 20,000 skilled birth attendants had been recruited in 22 states, while 4,747 community health workers were employed in 10 states.
The minister said staffing levels had improved significantly in MAMII local government areas, where 91 per cent of BHCPF facilities now had at least two midwives or community health extension workers, compared with 12 per cent at the beginning of the reforms.
He attributed the increase in skilled deliveries and antenatal attendance to improved staffing, infrastructure, and coordination of maternal health services.
On emergency response, Pate said 171 of the 172 MAMII local government areas had commenced emergency transportation services, which had transported 168,000 patients, including 62,000 women and newborns.
He explained that the initiative was designed to ensure that pregnant women and newborns requiring urgent medical attention could reach appropriate health facilities without unnecessary delays.
On financial protection, the minister said nearly 100,000 free emergency maternal and newborn services had been provided under the Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care programme.
He listed the services to include 80,900 caesarean sections, 9,100 newborn care services, and more than 6,000 fistula repairs.
Pate said deaths resulting from obstetric emergencies had also declined by more than 20 per cent in participating facilities, adding that the 60 per cent reduction in facility-based maternal case fatalities in MAMII areas represented a major achievement.
He said the health sector transformation was anchored on the objectives of saving lives, reducing physical and financial hardship, and ensuring access to quality healthcare for all Nigerians.
The minister added that the reforms were strengthening governance, transparency, and accountability through the use of data and feedback from citizens to assess service delivery and identify areas requiring improvement.
In his remarks, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, said the theme of the review, “Make the Data Count,” underscored the need to ensure that health information translated into measurable improvements in people’s lives.
Salako said the government must ensure that women registered during antenatal visits are also tracked through delivery, while children documented at birth are followed up through their immunisation schedules.
He said facility-reported maternal deaths had declined, while neonatal and other reported deaths had also recorded reductions of 22 and 25 per cent, respectively.
The minister said the review focused on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health, emergency transportation, free maternal and newborn services, MAMII, and health financing.
He added that the Federal Government was working towards achieving at least 90 per cent functional primary healthcare centres by 2031, alongside direct quarterly financing of at least 17,000 PHCs through the BHCPF.
Salako said the government was also targeting health insurance coverage for 40 per cent of Nigerians, MAMII coverage across all 774 local government areas, and a reduction in out-of-pocket health expenditure to below 50 per cent.
He urged stakeholders to ensure that health data were not merely collected for reporting purposes, but used to improve service delivery and prevent avoidable deaths.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, said state governments had increased their financial commitments to healthcare despite competing demands on limited resources.
He disclosed that combined health sector releases by states reached N681bn in the first half of 2026, compared with N542bn in the corresponding period of 2025, representing an increase of about 26 per cent.
AbdulRazaq said state governments were committed under the health sector compact to increasing allocations to primary healthcare, immunisation, and public health, as well as ensuring the timely release of approved funds.
He also disclosed that enrolment under state health insurance programmes increased from 14 million in the first quarter of 2026 to 15.75 million in the second quarter and 16.95 million in the third quarter.
According to him, the increase represented an addition of more than 2.8 million enrollees, with state health insurance agencies targeting 20 million beneficiaries by the end of December 2026.
On health workforce development, the NGF chairman listed several states that had recruited additional personnel, including Jigawa and Borno, which recruited more than 2,000 health workers each.
He said Kebbi recruited and deployed 1,582 health workers, including 520 nurses and midwives, while Kwara recruited more than 1,000, Cross River over 2,200, Anambra over 1,000, and Ondo more than 930 health professionals.
AbdulRazaq also commended the Federal Government, through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, for training more than 78,000 frontline health workers across the 36 states.
However, he identified malnutrition as a major challenge requiring stronger government intervention, citing the 2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey, which showed that 40 per cent of children under five were stunted.
He said state governments were committed to increasing investments in nutrition interventions, particularly those targeting mothers and children at the community level.
In his remarks on behalf of the United Nations and development partners, the World Health Organisation Country Representative, Dr. Pavel Ursu, commended Nigeria for demonstrating national ownership of its health sector transformation agenda.
Ursu said the sector-wide approach was gaining traction because the Federal Government was providing leadership, while development partners were aligning their technical and financial support with priorities identified by the country.
He said the approach was anchored on a common platform, “one budget, one conversation and one accountability framework,” adding that the JAR had evolved beyond an annual assessment into a continuous process of monitoring, action, and accountability.
According to him, the use of local data would enable governments to identify gaps in service delivery, understand implementation challenges, and mobilise the resources and partnerships required to address them.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ipalibo Harry Banigo, urged the government and other stakeholders not to lose sight of essential healthcare services, particularly efforts to reduce maternal mortality.
Banigo stressed the need to strengthen family planning, child healthcare, and support services for mothers, noting that maternal health outcomes were closely linked to access to these essential interventions.
She said efforts to reduce maternal deaths must be sustained through coordinated interventions addressing the healthcare needs of women and children.
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