Experts Seek Sustained Funding, Local Production to Tackle Nigeria’s Maternal Mortality Crisis

Funmi Ogundare 

Medical experts have called for sustained federal funding, increased local production of essential medical commodities and stronger implementation of maternal healthcare interventions to address Nigeria’s persistently high maternal mortality rate.

They warned that without adequate funding and effective delivery of existing government programmes, efforts to reduce preventable maternal deaths could stall, leaving millions of Nigerian women exposed to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications.

The experts made the call Thursday at the 8th Abimbola Aina Omololu-Mulele annual lecture, held at the College of Medicine, University of Lagos, where clinicians and health administrators examined structural challenges affecting reproductive healthcare in the country.

In his keynote, ‘Human Reproduction Through Evolutionary Perils: Moving Nigerian Women from Danger to Safety’, the President of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON), Prof. Okechukwu Christian Ikpeze, said Nigeria’s maternal mortality burden reflected systemic failures in healthcare access, infrastructure and timely medical intervention.

He explained that childbirth remained a complex biological process, noting that human evolutionary developments, including upright walking, enlargement of the brain and the passage of babies through the birth canal, had increased the risks associated with reproduction.

Ikpeze stated: “Nigeria’s maternal mortality statistics represented the loss of mothers, wives, sisters, daughters and breadwinners. Every preventable maternal death reflected a failure of healthcare systems and collective responsibility.”

Citing estimates from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Maternal Mortality Estimation Inter-Agency Group, he said developing countries accounted for about 99 per cent of the estimated 260,000 maternal deaths recorded globally each year.

He noted that the global maternal mortality ratio stood at 197 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2023, while the current annual reduction rate of 1.6 per cent remained insufficient to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal  (SDGs) target of fewer than 70 deaths per 100,000 live births by 2030.

Presenting Nigeria’s figures, Ikpeze said the country’s maternal mortality ratio declined from a peak of 1,168 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2015 to 1,065 in 2020 and 993 in 2023.

He, however, warned that the country remained significantly off track in achieving its 2030 target of reducing maternal mortality to 140 deaths per 100,000 live births.

He identified obstetric haemorrhage, pre-eclampsia and eclampsia, sepsis, unsafe abortions and severe anaemia during pregnancy as major preventable causes of maternal deaths requiring urgent attention.

On government interventions, the SOGON president emphasised the Federal Government’s Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiatives (MAMII), which seeks to improve access to quality maternal and newborn healthcare.

The initiative includes free Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) in designated centres, capacity building for frontline health workers, the National Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance System (NEMSAS), national postpartum haemorrhage guidelines and the clinical scale-up of the E-MOTIVE care bundle.

In their remarks, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Prof. Oluwole Familoni and Provost of the college, Prof. Ademola Oremosu, called for stronger collaboration among government agencies, professional medical bodies and community networks to translate research findings into practical healthcare interventions.

They stressed that maternal healthcare programmes must reach women in labour irrespective of their geographical location or economic circumstances.

The event featured the presentation of findings from the third edition of the 2024 Abimbola Aina Omololu-Mulele annual endowment research grant award.

The grant recipient and Principal Investigator, Dr. Ayokunle Moses Olumodeji, a Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in Gynae-Oncology at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and associate lecturer at the Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM), presented findings from a study assessing the diagnostic accuracy of the MobiLab HPV E6/E7 Oncoprotein rapid point-of-care test against conventional pap smear testing for detecting cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade two or worse (CIN2+).

The study, conducted among 98 women referred for colposcopy at LASUTH between January and December 2025, found that the rapid point-of-care test had a sensitivity of 32.3 per cent and specificity of 72.7 per cent.

Conventional Pap smear cytology recorded a sensitivity of 40.3 per cent and specificity of 86.7 per cent.

Although the differences in sensitivity and specificity between the two tests were not statistically significant, the study recorded poor agreement between them, indicating that they identified different subsets of patients.

Olumodeji cautioned that the rapid point-of-care test could not currently replace conventional cytology as a standalone screening method among high-risk referral populations.

He recommended larger multicentre and community-based studies across Nigeria’s geopolitical zones before the test could be considered for routine clinical substitution.

Speakers at the event commended the legacy of the donor, Chief Abimbola Aina Omololu-Mulele, noting that endowment funds provided sustainable support for research and could generate benefits across generations.