As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate World Health Day, the Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to reducing maternal and newborn mortality, emphasising the urgent significance of retraining frontline health workers.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare Dr Iziaq Salako, who stated this in Abuja yesterday, said the government’s commitment to ending preventable maternal and newborn deaths in the country was receiving urgent attention.
He said that to achieve that, the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative was developed to ensure universal health coverage.
Dr Salako noted that this year’s commemoration theme, “Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures,” aligns perfectly with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s manifesto agenda.
Elaborating on some of the ministry’s maternal and newborn initiatives, the minister highlighted the critical importance of training and retraining health workers. He stated that the target is to train at least 120,000 frontline workers. About 50 per cent oAf them have already been trained.
“If you look at one of the key deliverables of the Federal Ministry within the presidential priorities, it is to ensure that by 2027, we reduce maternal mortality by at least 20 per cent and infant mortality by at least 15 per cent.
Dr Salako further emphasised, “To ensure we do that, the professional delivering the service must be well trained.”
Taking capacity building a notch higher, the Minister pointed out that a practitioner must show evidence of continued professional development annually, besides renewal of practising licence.
Speaking on ensuring equitable access to maternal and newborn care nationwide, Dr Salako informed that the present administration is intentionally expanding and developing primary healthcare centres.
He further said, “We are developing initiatives like MAMI (Maternal & Neo-Natal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative), which explicitly targets high-budget local governments regarding maternal mortality rates.
“So you will see that with all this put together, we are taking maternal and child healthcare closer to the people at the grassroots.”
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