Nigeria Records 60% Drop In Maternal Deaths At BHCPF Facilities – FG

The Federal Government has said that a 60 per cent reduction in maternal death case fatality rates in health facilities supported by the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), exceeding its initial target of 30 per cent.The National Coordinator of the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) Coordination Office, Dr Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, disclosed this at the opening of the 2026 Joint Annual Review (JAR) of the health sector in Abuja on Tuesday.

Umar-Sadiq said the reduction followed several validation exercises, including three rounds of telephone surveys and physical assessments conducted through the Facility Assessment and Supportive Technical Assistance (FASTA) approach.

He said the development represented significant progress in the government’s efforts to reduce maternal deaths and improve access to essential healthcare services.

According to him, the 2026 JAR findings also showed that 12 out of 13 indicators across family planning, maternal health and child health had improved, with most recording double-digit gains.

He said progress in skilled birth attendance during the 2023–2026 reform period was 11 times faster than in the preceding five years, while improvements in postnatal checks were seven times faster and institutional deliveries recorded three times faster progress.

Umar-Sadiq attributed the improvements to interventions targeting healthcare financing, facility readiness, service utilisation, emergency referrals, transportation and financial protection.

He, however, identified persistent gaps in emergency obstetric and newborn care, shortages of health workers, deployment of community healthcare workers and data quality.

Presenting an overview of the reforms, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, said the government had disbursed N249 billion to states through the four BHCPF gateways between 2023 and the third quarter of 2026.

He contrasted this with the N74 billion cumulatively disbursed to primary healthcare facilities through direct facility financing in the 10 years preceding the current administration.

Pate said the reforms had also resulted in the revitalisation of about 3,500 primary healthcare centres, with another 900 undergoing work.

He added that nearly 20,000 skilled birth attendants had been recruited across 22 states, while 4,747 community health workers had been recruited in 10 states.

The minister said skilled deliveries in BHCPF-supported facilities increased from 4.8 million to 7.9 million between 2023 and 2026, while women completing four antenatal care visits rose from six million to 8.7 million.

He added that outpatient visits increased from 32.4 million to 43 million, while the number of children receiving the third dose of the pentavalent vaccine doubled from 1.2 million to 2.4 million in one year.

On financial protection, Pate said health insurance coverage had increased by about eight million people under the administration.

He also disclosed that nearly 100,000 free emergency services had been provided to women, including 80,900 caesarean sections, 9,100 newborn services and more than 6,000 fistula repairs.

According to him, the government has also reduced dialysis costs by almost 80 per cent for more than 5,000 patients, while over 700 cancer patients have benefited from subsidised medicines.

Despite the reported improvements, Pate said inadequate domestic financing, unequal distribution of health workers and quality of care remained major challenges requiring urgent attention.

He urged federal and state governments to strengthen domestic health financing, warning that Nigeria could not sustainably build a healthy population by depending on foreign assistance.

“The illusion that you can have a healthy country on somebody else’s taxpayer, I think we should put it behind us,” he said.

He said the government was pursuing legislative measures, including increasing the BHCPF allocation to two per cent and reforming excise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages to generate additional resources for healthcare.

Pate also identified modernisation of federal tertiary hospitals, expansion of health insurance coverage and digital transformation, including the application of artificial intelligence, as priorities for the next phase of the reforms.

Earlier, the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, said the Joint Annual Review was an accountability platform for assessing progress under the health sector compact and ensuring that commitments translated into measurable improvements.

Salako said the administration had enrolled almost eight million additional Nigerians in health insurance, including more than three million vulnerable persons.

He added that over 8,000 primary healthcare facilities had received direct support, while more than 3,000 had been upgraded to Level Two readiness.

The minister also disclosed that facility-reported neonatal and under-five deaths had declined by 22 per cent and 25 per cent respectively.

He said the review was particularly important as 2027 would mark the final year of the 2023–2027 Health Sector Strategic Blueprint.

In his remarks, the representative of civil society organisations, Dr Muhammad Lecky, urged governments to ensure that improvements in infrastructure translated into functional healthcare services.

He said renovated facilities must have adequate personnel, medicines, electricity and functional systems to deliver quality care.

Lecky also called for transparent and timely financing, stronger community participation and independent assessment of reported improvements.

The 2026 Joint Annual Review brings together federal and state governments, development partners, civil society organisations, traditional and religious institutions and private sector stakeholders to assess health sector performance and agree on priorities for 2027.