By Ojoma Akor and Abubakar Yunusa
The Federal Government of Nigeria will soon distribute medical equipment to 251 secondary health facilities nationwide to strengthen emergency obstetric and newborn care services.
National Coordinator of the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp), Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, disclosed this Thursday during a media conference on ongoing health sector reforms, the Universal Health Coverage Compact and the state of Comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care (CEmONC) readiness across Nigeria.
He said the intervention is geared towards addressing critical gaps in infrastructure and equipment in labor wards, theatres, and neonatal units nationwide.
He also said the Federal Government, in collaboration with state governments, had assessed 774 CEmONC facilities and identified major gaps that affect the effective delivery of maternal and newborn healthcare.
Umar-Sadiq explained that the equipment package would support labor rooms, pharmacies, laboratories, operating theatres and neonatal units to improve emergency response capabilities in health facilities.
He added that the ongoing reforms under the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII) were already producing measurable results across priority local government areas.
According to him, no fewer than 2.1 million pregnant women are currently accessing antenatal care services through the reforms.
“The point of this reform is to address some of the longstanding issues that we’ve had in the health sector, everything from limited coordination and fragmentation to infrastructure and data issues,” he said.
He stressed that governance and accountability remained central to achieving better healthcare outcomes.
“The right solutions are not necessarily about more money into the system. Governance, how we organize the sector for delivery and accountability frameworks are at the heart of addressing issues,” Umar-Sadiq stated.
He further revealed that the reforms were tackling demand-side barriers through the National Health Insurance Authority by supporting reimbursements for cesarean sections and treatment of obstetric complications.
Umar-Sadiq said 259 health facilities had already been impaneled under the program, while over 42,000 maternal and neonatal services had been reimbursed nationwide.
“Over 4,000 women and neonates have benefited from free cesarean sections,” he added.
The SWAp coordinator also disclosed that over 3,000 primary healthcare centers had been revitalized nationwide, and more than 3,000 community healthcare workers had been recruited and deployed to underserved communities.
He said 172 local government areas responsible for nearly 55 percent of maternal deaths were currently being prioritized under the intervention program.
“We are localizing the issues and ensuring that states lead responses to context-specific challenges,” he said.
On sustainability, Umar-Sadiq explained that the reforms were designed around a pay-for-results model to ensure ownership and accountability by state governments.
“What we have designed is a program where states use their resources to revitalize facilities and recruit healthcare workers, and then we pay them after the fact,” he stated.
He noted that unlike previous interventions, the new health compact signed by the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) clearly defined obligations, monitoring mechanisms and performance indicators.
“For the first time, we now have a unified accountability framework spelling out expectations from states and the federal government,” he added.
The SWAp coordinator said quarterly performance reviews were now being conducted with states to monitor progress on maternal mortality reduction, healthcare workforce deployment and facility revitalization.
He added that the reforms were already improving healthcare utilization, increasing skilled birth attendance and reducing facility-based maternal mortality rates in intervention areas.
“We are now seeing that utilization of services is picking up. Deliveries by skilled birth attendants are increasing and facility-based maternal mortality rates are reducing from baseline,” he stated.
He, however, acknowledged challenges in recruiting and retaining healthcare workers amid rising professional migration abroad, noting that investments were being made to strengthen workforce development.
