FG Flags Off Maternal, Newborn Care Incentives in 33 States, Targets 30% Reduction in Maternal Deaths by 2028

Nigeria Flags Off Maternal Health Incentives to Reduce Deaths in 172 High-Burden LGAs

ABUJA — The Federal Government has stepped up its response to Nigeria’s maternal and newborn mortality burden with the flag-off of new incentives aimed at getting more pregnant women to use antenatal, delivery and postnatal services.

The intervention was launched on 14 September 2026 at the State House, Abuja, under the Federal Government’s Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII). The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare said the initiative is designed to tackle barriers that prevent women and newborns from receiving timely and quality care.

The launch was led by the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, who said the intervention was intended to help ensure that Nigerian children have a healthy start to life and that preventable deaths during pregnancy and childbirth are reduced.

But the significance of the latest intervention goes beyond distributing incentives. The Federal Government is attempting to address both sides of the maternal health problem: whether women can reach and afford care, and whether health facilities have the people, medicines, equipment and systems needed to respond when they arrive.

Targeting Nigeria’s highest-burden areas

According to Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, MAMII was launched in November 2024 and currently targets 172 Local Government Areas across 33 states.

Although these LGAs represent about one-fifth of the country’s LGAs, the ministry says they account for approximately 55 per cent of maternal deaths in Nigeria.

The programme has set targets of reducing 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.

More than 250 health facilities are currently implementing the programme in states including Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Ogun.

The ministry reported that more than 32,000 women and 1,700 newborns have already benefited from emergency obstetric and neonatal care under the initiative. It also said the National Emergency Medical Treatment and Ambulance System (NEMSAS) has transported nearly 79,000 beneficiaries to appropriate care, with pregnant women accounting for about 60 per cent of those transported.

Antenatal attendance rises in targeted LGAs

There is also an early indication that the demand-side approach is changing service utilisation.

The ministry said attendance for the fourth antenatal care visit increased by 20 per cent in one quarter across MAMII LGAs.

The new incentives are intended to reinforce behaviours associated with safer pregnancy and childbirth, particularly early antenatal registration, delivery in health facilities and postnatal follow-up.

For pharmacists and other healthcare professionals, the development is important because increased demand for maternal services will also place greater demands on the medicines, diagnostics, referral and counselling systems supporting those services.

More than 60,000 women receive free emergency obstetric care

Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, said MAMII was developed under the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative to address weaknesses on both the supply and demand sides of maternal healthcare.

The ministry reported that more than 60,000 women have received free Caesarean sections and other emergency obstetric services through the National Health Insurance Authority, while more than 120,000 frontline health workers have been retrained.

Pate also disclosed that thousands of health facilities have been revitalised and that more than 6,000 women affected by obstetric fistula have received corrective treatment and empowerment support.

The minister stressed that maternal nutrition must also remain part of the response, including the use of multiple micronutrient supplementation. He linked the issue to the government's wider nutrition interventions, arguing that maternal health cannot be separated from the nutritional conditions in which pregnancy takes place.

Nigeria’s maternal health burden remains severe

The latest intervention comes against a backdrop of persistently poor maternal and newborn health indicators.

The Federal Ministry of Health said the 2023–24 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey indicates that a Nigerian woman faces approximately a one-in-19 lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes.

The ministry also stated that Nigeria accounts for close to 29 per cent of global maternal deaths.

The 2024 NDHS provides further context: antenatal care coverage was reported at 63 per cent, while skilled birth attendance stood at 46 per cent. Postnatal care within two days of delivery was 42 per cent in 2024. Neonatal mortality remained high at 41 deaths per 1,000 live births.

These figures underline why simply encouraging women to seek care is not enough. Higher attendance must be matched by facilities capable of providing safe delivery, emergency obstetric care, newborn care, essential medicines and timely referral.

The test will be what happens at facility level

That is where the next phase of MAMII will be closely watched.

The government says the incentives should increase demand for maternal and newborn services while supporting health facilities and frontline workers to provide timely care.

The programme's stated targets are ambitious, but its success will ultimately depend on whether women in the targeted communities can consistently move from incentive to service use, and from service use to safe outcomes.

For healthcare professionals, particularly those working in primary and secondary care, that means the quality of implementation will matter as much as the size of the intervention.

States have also been urged to sustain and expand the gains recorded under MAMII. Pate said state governments are particularly important because they are closer to the communities where many of the barriers to maternal healthcare are experienced.

The Federal Government has reaffirmed that reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths remains a priority, with the latest incentives forming part of a broader effort to improve access, strengthen healthcare delivery and increase the use of essential services.

Source: Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Nigeria.