First Lady Seeks More Collaboration Among Tiers of Govt as FG Distributes 215,000 Maternal Kits

• Traditional birth practices fuelling maternal mortality, says MAMII •80,000 food-support packs, new-born clothing rolled out •Govt targets 2.9m pregnant women, families by 2028 Deji Elumoye, Onyebuchi Ezigbo and Ayodeji Ake in Abuja Wife of the President, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has canvassed stronger collaboration among governments at all levels, traditional and religious institutions, development partners, and philanthropists to tackle Nigeria’s maternal and new-born mortality burden. Mrs. Tinubu’s call came as the federal government rolled out 215,000 MAMA kits, 40,000 maternal food-support packs, and 40,000 sets of new-born clothing for vulnerable women and families nationwide. She said the scale of the challenge among pregnant women and infants required collective action to ensure that the interventions reached them particularly those in poor, underserved, and hard-to-reach communities. The federal government also unveiled a set of incentives to encourage pregnant women to register early for antenatal care, deliver in health facilities, and attend postnatal follow-up, as part of efforts to reduce maternal and new-born deaths. Speaking at the national flag-off of incentives to increase maternal and new-born care services utilisation at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday, Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Salako, said the government was providing free emergency medical services, including emergency obstetric and neonatal care, for vulnerable women and children. “Today’s flag-off of incentives is our next deliberate step — rewarding and reinforcing the very behaviours we know save lives: early antenatal registration, facility delivery and postnatal follow-up,” he said. Speaking on Monday at the flag-off of the distribution at State House Conference Centre, Abuja, the first lady said pregnancy and childbirth should be occasions of hope and joy rather than a threat to the lives of Nigerian women. According to her, “This occasion represents a further step towards ensuring that every Nigerian child has a healthy start in life and that no woman loses her life while giving birth. “The intervention is being implemented under the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII) of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and is designed to encourage greater use of antenatal, delivery and postnatal services.” Mrs. Tinubu said the programme aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda on Health, which placed healthcare at the centre of national development. She described MAMII as a bold national intervention bringing together critical stakeholders to tackle preventable maternal and new-born deaths through greater awareness, emergency care, and more effective referral systems. She stated, “As a mother, I believe pregnancy and childbirth should be moments of hope and joy, with every woman having access to quality care. However, social, economic, cultural, and logistical barriers still exist. This is what makes today’s flag-off particularly significant.” The 215,000 MAMA kits and bags, according to her, constitute the second batch of the intervention, following the distribution of 110,000 kits in 2025. She said government was complementing the kits with 40,000 maternal food-support packs and 40,000 sets of essential new-born clothing, while the intervention would subsequently be expanded to additional local government areas where uptake of MAMII services remained low. Mrs. Tinubu explained the incentives were intended to encourage economically disadvantaged pregnant women to attend antenatal clinics, prepare adequately for childbirth, and remain connected to healthcare services after delivery. She stated, “The new-born clothing represents the administration’s commitment to welcoming every Nigerian child with dignity, warmth, and care. “The maternal food support equally recognises that the health and nutrition of a mother are essential to a healthy pregnancy, safe delivery, and a healthy new-born.” She urged state and local governments as well as traditional and religious leaders, development partners, and philanthropists to work with the federal government to ensure the materials got to women who needed them most. The first lady also highlighted interventions she had supported in maternal and child healthcare, including the provision of professional kits to midwives, retraining of frontline health workers and advocacy against mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis. She commended the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, and officials of the ministry for their commitment to reducing preventable deaths among women and new-borns. Salako said the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative, MAMII, was launched by the ministry in November 2024. It targets 172 local government areas across 33 states, representing 20 per cent of Nigeria’s local government areas. He said, “The aim of this bold, sector-wide ambition is to cut maternal mortality by 30 per cent and neonatal mortality by 20 per cent in these areas by 2028, reaching 2.9 million pregnant women with free, timely and comprehensive care.” According to him, there are already visible results since MAMII was rolled out in states including Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Ogun, with over 250 health facilities now actively implementing the programme. He disclosed that more than 32,000 women and 1,700 new-borns had benefited directly from emergency obstetric and neonatal care under MAMII. Through the National Emergency Medical Services and Ambulance System (NEMSAS), “nearly 79,000 beneficiaries — roughly 60 per cent of them pregnant women — have been transported to care, cutting the fatal delays that so often cost lives”, he added. Salako also stated that in MAMII-implementing local government areas, fourth-visit antenatal care attendance rose by 20 per cent in a single quarter. Relatedly, National Coordinator of MAMII, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, said cultural barriers were discouraging pregnant women from accessing maternal and neonatal care, especially in rural communities. Speaking at the inauguration of the Taskforce on the Reduction/Elimination of Maternal Mortality by the FCT administration, Adeyanju said a review conducted by the MAMII team showed that many pregnant women in rural areas of the FCT still patronised traditional birth attendants instead of skilled birth attendants for child delivery. He said, “That’s the problem. You see these beautiful facilities that are here, that we put drugs, we put medication.” He said traditional birth practices continued to fuel maternal and new-born mortality and must be addressed through community engagement and incentives. The minister used the opportunity to pay tribute to the wife of the president for her contributions towards improving maternal and neonatal care. He stated, “Through the Renewed Hope Initiative, she has personally driven the distribution of professional kits to midwives across the six geopolitical zones, supported the retraining of 120,000 frontline health workers, championed the Free to Shine campaign to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, syphilis and hepatitis, and mobilized well over N100 billion in support of Nigeria’s most vulnerable women, children and families.” The minister also acknowledged development partners, including WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, the Global Financing Facility, USAID, and others, “whose technical and financial partnership continues to strengthen Nigeria’s health system.” He said the combination of incentives, emergency transport, facility upgrades and community mobilisation under MAMII would help Nigeria achieve its target of reducing preventable maternal and new-born deaths. Earlier, Pate said the intervention was part of a wider Federal Government strategy to expand access to essential healthcare and reverse the country’s high burden of preventable maternal and neonatal deaths. According to him, the government’s sector-wide approach targets a 30 per cent reduction in maternal mortality and a 20 per cent reduction in newborn mortality by 2028, with approximately 2.9 million pregnant women and families expected to benefit. He said MAMII was already being implemented in several states, focusing on emergency obstetric and new-born care, transportation, referral systems, and stronger primary healthcare delivery.