Nigeria claims progress on maternal health, but can a broken health system hold the line?

 

By Ladidi Sabo

Nigeria’s federal government says it is making headway in closing the country’s long-standing gender health gap, reporting a 17 percent decline in maternal deaths in targeted local government areas.

The claim, announced amid sweeping health sector reforms, signals cautious optimism in a country that still accounts for nearly a third of global maternal deaths. But beyond the encouraging figures, experts

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, disclosed the data on Saturday in Abuja at the official launch of the Built for Her Foundation.

According to Pate, the reduction is being recorded under the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII), a flagship programme designed to strengthen governance, improve population health and build a resilient health system.

Represented at the event by Dr Mayowa Alade, Pate described the launch as “a moment of collective resolve,” arguing that women’s health must be treated not as a peripheral social issue but as a core national development priority.

“The health of women and girls is inseparable from the health, productivity and future of our nation,” he said, calling for urgent and coordinated action across government and society.

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At the heart of the NHSRII, Pate explained, is a deliberate effort to crash maternal and child mortality rates—figures that remain among the worst globally despite decades of policy interventions.

He said early results from the Maternal and Mortality Innovation Initiative (MAMII) local government areas suggest a downward trend in facility-based maternal deaths.

Yet the celebration of progress comes against a sobering national backdrop. Across much of Nigeria, particularly in rural areas where maternal mortality is highest, primary healthcare centres remain understaffed, poorly equipped and chronically underfunded.

Even in urban government hospitals, basic supplies, diagnostic tools and skilled personnel are often lacking, forcing women to seek care late—or not at all.

Pate acknowledged that maternal and child mortality is not merely a clinical problem.

“It is a systems challenge,” he said, shaped by access to timely and quality care, availability of skilled health workers, financial protection and the social and economic conditions in which women live.

Health analysts say this admission underscores the central tension in Nigeria’s reform narrative: while targeted interventions can deliver measurable improvements, systemic weaknesses in primary healthcare risk limiting nationwide impact. Without sustained investment at the grassroots level, critics argue, progress may remain uneven and fragile.

To sustain momentum, the government has increasingly leaned on partnerships with foundations, professional bodies and civil society organisations.

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Pate described initiatives such as the Built for Her Foundation as critical complements to public sector efforts, stressing that reforms would fall short without deliberate action to address women’s specific needs.

“Closing the gender health gap—by ensuring women are properly counted in data, studied in research, cared for within responsive systems, included in decision-making and invested in as drivers of change—is essential,” he said.

The theme was echoed by Toyin Saraki, Founder of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, who warned that persistent gaps in access, representation and investment continue to shape unequal health outcomes for Nigerian women.

“Sustainable national progress is closely linked to the health and well-being of women and girls,” she said, pointing to structural shortcomings in how women are counted, studied and prioritised within health systems.

Saraki said the Built for Her Foundation was designed around a data-driven, accountability-focused framework informed by global evidence on the gender health gap.

Its strategic emphasis on strengthening the pipeline of women in medicine, research and health leadership, she argued, addresses not only service delivery gaps but also long-term policy and governance deficits.

Women, she noted, remain underrepresented in Nigeria’s physician workforce and health decision-making structures—an imbalance that shapes research priorities, care outcomes and system responsiveness.

Founder of the Built for Her Foundation, Dr Teniola Saraki, expanded the conversation beyond maternal health, stressing that women’s health encompasses cancers, cardiovascular disease, mental health and autoimmune conditions—areas where women often face delayed diagnoses or poorer outcomes.

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“Much of the women’s health gap is not driven solely by conditions unique to women,” she said, “but by conditions that affect everyone, where women experience worse outcomes because systems were never designed with them in mind.”

Nigeria’s statistics remain stark. The country records one maternal death every seven minutes, accounts for about 29 percent of global maternal deaths and has screened fewer than 11 percent of women for cervical cancer. Closing these gaps, Saraki argued, could unlock significant economic, demographic and intergenerational benefits.

The Foundation’s flagship National Medical Student Scholarship—supporting 30 high-achieving female medical students nationwide—was presented as a long-term investment in rebuilding Nigeria’s health workforce.

For beneficiaries like Hindat Abdulwahab, a fourth-year medical student at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the support represents more than financial aid.

“It reminds me that I belong,” she said, describing the scholarship as validation for women pursuing demanding medical careers in a system that often undervalues them.

As Nigeria touts early successes in reducing maternal deaths, the challenge ahead is clear: translating targeted wins into systemic transformation.

Without fixing the foundations of primary healthcare, analysts warn, reform gains risk being temporary—another hopeful statistic overshadowed by persistent structural failure.