Abuja: The Federal Government says no fewer than 2.1 million pregnant women are now accessing antenatal care services under the reforms being implemented through the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII).
The Coordinator of the Sector Wide Approach (SWAp), Dr Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, spoke during a media conference on ongoing health sector reforms, the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Compact and the state of Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) readiness across Nigeria.
Umar-Sadiq highlighted that the reforms are delivering measurable improvements in targeted local government areas, underscoring the national progress toward better maternal health outcomes.
According to him, the reforms are designed to address longstanding governance, infrastructure, accountability, and human resource challenges affecting healthcare delivery at the federal, state, and local government levels nationwide.
He emphasised that the reform aims to resolve longstanding issues, including limited coordination, fragmentation, infrastructure gaps, and data gaps in the health sector.
Umar-Sadiq said governance remained central to the reforms, stressing that improving healthcare outcomes required an efficient organisation of the sector and stronger accountability mechanisms beyond increased funding alone.
“The right solutions are not necessarily about putting more money into the system. Governance, how we organise the sector for delivery and accountability frameworks, is at the heart of addressing issues,” he said.
He disclosed that the Federal Government, in partnership with the states, recently assessed 774 CEmONC facilities and identified critical infrastructure and equipment gaps nationwide.
He added that 251 secondary health facilities across the country would receive medical equipment to strengthen emergency obstetric and newborn care services in labour wards, theatres and neonatal units.
He said the equipment package would support labour rooms, pharmacies, laboratories, operating theatres and neonatal units to improve maternal and newborn emergency response capabilities across health facilities nationwide.
Umar-Sadiq said the reforms were also addressing demand-side barriers through the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) by supporting reimbursement for Caesarean Sections and treatment of obstetric complications nationwide.
He revealed that no fewer than 259 health facilities had already been empanelled under the programme, while over 42,000 maternal and neonatal services had been successfully reimbursed across the country.
“Over 4,000 women and neonates have benefited from free caesarean sections,” the SWAp coordinator said while highlighting interventions supporting maternal and newborn healthcare access in priority areas nationwide.
He further disclosed that no fewer than 3,000 primary healthcare centres had been revitalised nationwide, while over 3,000 Community Healthcare Workers had also been recruited and deployed to underserved communities.
According to him, 172 local government areas—responsible for nearly 55 per cent of maternal deaths nationwide—are currently prioritised under the intervention programme.
“We are localising the issues and ensuring that states lead responses to context-specific challenges,” Umar-Sadiq explained while outlining implementation strategies adopted under the reform programme nationwide currently.
On sustainability, he said the reforms had been structured around a pay-for-results model to ensure that states assumed ownership of healthcare interventions and improved accountability for implementation nationwide.
“What we have designed is a programme where states use their resources to revitalise facilities and recruit healthcare workers, and then we pay them after the fact,” he said.
He explained that, unlike previous interventions, the new health compact, signed by the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, clearly defined obligations, monitoring mechanisms, and performance indicators nationwide.e.
“For the first time, we now have a unified accountability framework spelling out expectations from states and the Federal Government,” Umar-Sadiq said.
The SWAp coordinator added that quarterly performance reviews were now being conducted with states to track progress on maternal mortality, healthcare workforce deployment and facility revitalisation across the country.
He emphasised that reforms are already driving positive changes: healthcare service use has increased, more births are attended by skilled professionals, and maternal mortality rates are declining in intervention areas.
“We are now seeing that utilisation of services is picking up. Deliveries by skilled birth attendants are increasing and facility-based maternal mortality rates are reducing from baseline,” he stated.
Umar-Sadiq acknowledged challenges affecting the recruitment and retention of healthcare workers amid the rising migration of professionals abroad, but said investments were currently being made to strengthen workforce development nationwide.