I paid pregnant women N10,000 for antenatal care as Rivers governor — Amaechi

Former Rivers State Governor and African Democratic Congress presidential running mate, Rotimi Amaechi, has disclosed that his administration paid pregnant women N10,000 each to attend antenatal care as part of efforts to reduce maternal and child mortality in the state.

Amaechi made the disclosure while speaking at the Her Health, Her Power Conference Africa 2026 in Abuja on Tuesday, where he reflected on his administration’s efforts to improve healthcare for women during his tenure as governor.

According to him, Rivers State was ranked second on the maternal-child mortality index at the time, prompting his administration to establish health centres across villages and strengthen their staffing.

“If you follow what happened in Rivers State when I was a governor, we were rated second on the maternal-child mortality index, and to cure that, we had to establish health centres in every village,” Amaechi said.

He said each village health centre was staffed with two doctors and nurses, while pregnant women who attended antenatal care were given N10,000.

“Each village has a medical centre; we employed two doctors and nurses, while we paid N10,000 per woman that went for antenatal, so our health centres were full every Friday because they were sure of going home with N10,000,” he said.

Amaechi explained that the financial incentive was intended to encourage pregnant women to attend antenatal care, adding that the policy also had an economic dimension.

“They are not coming there for their health but for the money, and that N10,000 is economy. It’s key that we can’t separate the health of women from economic growth,” he said.

The former governor also stressed the need for greater investment in women’s health and education, arguing that economic conditions have a direct impact on the wellbeing of women.

“In a global economy like that of Nigeria, 40 per cent of women are farmers, so we need to do more as politicians to see that women live healthier,” he said.

Amaechi, who served as Rivers State governor from 2007 to 2015, also said educating women was critical to improving leadership and development outcomes.

“No matter how much grammar we speak in our different states as governors, we need to do more for our women, and another thing we need to do is to make sure that they get educated; they make better leaders when they are educated,” he added.