Nigeria has flagged off a new package of incentives aimed at increasing the use of maternal and newborn healthcare services and reducing preventable deaths among women and children under the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII).
Flagging off the initiative, Wife of the President, Sen. Oluremi Tinubu said the intervention represented an important step towards ensuring that every Nigerian child has a healthy start in life, stressing that “no woman should lose her life while giving birth.
“The incentive package includes 215,000 Mama Kits and bags, following the distribution of 110,000 kits in 2025, alongside 40,000 maternal food support packs and 40,000 sets of essential newborn clothing”.
Mrs Tinubu explained that the initiative is expected to encourage vulnerable pregnant women to attend antenatal clinics, prepare for safe delivery and continue accessing essential care after childbirth.
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”Social, economic, cultural and logistical barriers continued to affect access to maternal healthcare, making practical support for vulnerable women particularly important,” she said.
The First Lady urged state and local governments, traditional and religious leaders, development partners and philanthropists to support the initiative and ensure that incentives reach underserved communities.
“Pregnancy and childbirth should be moments of hope and joy, with every woman having access to quality care,” she added.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, said the MAMII initiative was designed to address both the supply and demand sides of maternal healthcare, including access to primary healthcare, skilled personnel, essential commodities and affordability of services.
“The programme had recorded significant progress, with more than 60,000 women receiving free emergency obstetric services, over 120,000 frontline health workers retrained and more than 3,000 health facilities revitalised, the results are there, now we need to intensify, accelerate, and communicate those results more”. He said.
Pate said the newly launched incentives would encourage pregnant women to access antenatal care and skilled birth services, stressing that nutrition was also central to reducing maternal and newborn deaths.
He urged state governments to sustain and expand the interventions, noting that they were closer to communities and could channel increased resources towards pressing health needs.
“It doesn’t stop with the Federal Government’s intervention. States will need to expand on these efforts”. He added.
The Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ipalibo Harry Banigo, described the initiative as an evidence-driven intervention capable of increasing community demand for maternal and newborn healthcare services.
She said the Senate had provided funding through the Vulnerable Group Fund to support health insurance coverage for pregnant women, children under five and other vulnerable groups.
“This, as a national call, will strengthen the demand for maternal and newborn healthcare services across the country and reduce unnecessary maternal mortalities and neonatal morbidities,” Banigo said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Pavel Ursu, said the maternal and newborn care incentives would encourage women to seek early antenatal care, deliver with skilled support and receive timely postnatal services.
He, however, stressed that incentives must be matched with quality healthcare, trained personnel, essential medicines and functional referral systems.
“Let us connect incentives with quality care, let us strengthen primary healthcare and referral systems, and also let us invest in the workforce,” Ursu said.
Representing the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Archbishop Daniel Okoh, the Vice President, Reverend Dr. Stephen Panya Baba, described the incentives as a practical intervention to overcome barriers such as cost, distance and lack of information.
He pledged the support of churches through clinics, women fellowships, pulpits and community networks to mobilise women to use maternal health services.
“We will use our churches, women fellowships, pulpits and community networks to mobilise women and encourage them to access these vital servicee,” he said.
Representing the Sultan of Sokoto, Dr. Nasir Sani-Gwarzo said the Sultan viewed the incentives as an empowerment tool that could help women access healthcare.
He urged stakeholders to scale up the initiative and promised to mobilise religious and traditional leaders within the Sultanate’s network in support of the programme.
“The Sultanate will continue to mobilise religious and traditional leaders to support this initiative and ensure that women can access the healthcare they need,”. He said.
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