The Federal Government has announced a 60 per cent reduction in maternal deaths in communities covered by its Maternal and Newborn Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII) between 2024 and 2026.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja during the third Nigeria Health Sector Joint Annual Review.

Pate attributed the improvement to increased access to skilled birth attendants, emergency referral services and improved 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 strengthen healthcare delivery.

According to him, 91 per cent of Basic Health Care Provision Fund-supported facilities in the intervention areas now have at least two midwives or community health extension workers, compared with 12 per cent before the initiative.

He added that 99 per cent of the facilities had been connected to emergency referral systems, while 750,000 pregnant women had been mapped and linked to functional health facilities.

The minister disclosed that emergency transport services were operational in 171 of the initiative’s 172 local government areas, transporting 104,566 women and newborns.

He also said more than 300 secondary healthcare facilities had been re-equipped to provide comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care, while over 500 primary healthcare centres had received equipment for basic emergency services.

On the free emergency obstetric care programme, Pate said nearly 100,000 services had been provided within two years, including 80,906 Caesarean sections, about 9,100 newborn services and 6,059 repairs for vesicovaginal fistula.

Despite the progress, Pate acknowledged that Nigeria continued to face significant maternal and newborn health challenges, stressing the need for sustained investment in healthcare personnel, emergency referral systems and functional health facilities.

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, said the government had upgraded more than 3,000 primary healthcare centres to Level Two readiness and expanded health insurance coverage to nearly eight million additional Nigerians.