Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate
The Federal Government has secured financial and in-kind commitments estimated at over $65m from seven private sector and philanthropic organisations to support efforts to reduce preventable maternal and newborn deaths in Nigeria.
The commitments, submitted through Letters of Intent under the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative Private Sector Compact, are expected to address critical healthcare delivery gaps in 172 local government areas identified as having the highest burden of maternal and newborn deaths.
The seven organisations that submitted Letters of Intent were DP World, Bayer, UNICEF, dsm-firmenich, Nestlé Nutrition Institute, Roche and Ferring Pharmaceuticals.
Their proposed contributions will be assessed against identified priorities and implementation gaps, while progress will be monitored through the Sector-Wide Approach framework.
The new commitments build on the engagement of the Gates Foundation, MSD for Mothers and MTN Group Foundation, while the World Economic Forum’s Global Alliance for Women’s Health supported the mobilisation of industry partners and technical expertise.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Ali Pate, disclosed this on Wednesday during the second day of the 2026 Joint Annual Review of the health sector in Abuja, where the Federal Government unveiled the compact.
The initiative is designed to align private sector investments, technical expertise, products and supply chains with government-identified maternal and newborn health priorities under the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and its Sector-Wide Approach, according to a statement released by MAMII following the event.
Nigeria records an estimated 40,000 maternal deaths and approximately 300,000 newborn deaths annually, translating to more than 100 women and 800 newborns dying daily, according to figures cited by the ministry.
Speaking at the event, Pate said reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths remained a national priority under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
He said, “Reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths is a national priority and a fundamental measure of the progress we are making in strengthening Nigeria’s health system.”
The minister said the government was bringing federal and state governments, private sector organisations and development partners together under a common national plan, with particular attention to the 172 local government areas where maternal mortality was highest.
“The commitments of over $65m announced today represent an important expression of confidence in Nigeria’s reform agenda and the opportunities for purposeful private sector participation in improving health outcomes,” he added.
The Nigeria Country Director of the Gates Foundation, Uche Amaonwu, said the compact would strengthen coordination among public, private and philanthropic organisations working to reduce preventable maternal and newborn deaths.
Amaonwu said, “The burden of maternal mortality continues to affect too many Nigerian families. The MAMII compact brings focus to this challenge, coordinating public, private and philanthropic efforts to reduce preventable maternal and newborn deaths.”
Also speaking, the Head of the Centre for Health and Healthcare at the World Economic Forum, Dr Shyam Bishen, said the private sector had important contributions to make beyond financial support.
He said businesses could provide essential products, supply chains, technology and technical expertise needed to improve healthcare delivery.
Similarly, the Executive Director of Social Impact and Sustainability and Head of Mission Aligned Initiatives at MSD for Mothers, Jacquelyn Caglia, said the organisation had spent 15 years working to address maternal mortality, including through interventions in Nigeria.
She said the investment in TEAM OB/NEO under the compact reaffirmed the organisation’s commitment to working with other private sector partners to pool resources, expertise and innovation.
Caglia said the collaboration was intended to expand access to quality maternity care services for women across the country.
The Executive Director of MTN Foundation, Odunayo Sanya, said technology could help remove barriers to accessing essential maternal healthcare services.
“MTN believes technology has its greatest value when it removes real barriers to essential services,” she said.
Sanya said the foundation would combine connectivity, responsible artificial intelligence and digital solutions with government leadership and partners’ expertise to strengthen maternal healthcare.
She added that the commitment would help provide women, frontline health workers and healthcare facilities with the tools and information needed to improve service delivery.
Meanwhile, the Coordinating Minister unveiled the MAMII Private Sector Compact Platform, a web-based monitoring system developed through the Sector-Wide Approach Coordination Office to track partner contributions, implementation coverage and outstanding gaps across participating states and local government areas.
The MAMII National Lead at the SWAp Coordination Office, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Dayo Adeyanju, said the platform would help prevent duplication of interventions and ensure that resources were directed to communities with the greatest needs.
He explained that the platform, which was still at the prototype stage, had been populated with programme data showing the gaps in different locations and the organisations supporting interventions in the affected local government areas.
“The MAMII private sector platform is currently at a prototype stage, populated with MAMII programme data. It shows clearly where the gaps are and which delivery partners are supporting which LGAs,” Adeyanju said.
He added that the platform would help prevent situations where some communities were oversaturated with development partners while others remained underserved.
According to him, the system would provide public and private sector partners with information to make informed decisions on resource allocation from December 2026.
The review also featured the introduction of TEAM OB/NEO, a government-led framework designed to strengthen the capacity of frontline health workers to identify and manage obstetric and newborn emergencies.
TEAM OB/NEO, which stands for Training for Emergency Action, Management and Workflows in Midwifery, Obstetrics and Neonatal Care, integrates clinical training, standardised workflows and proven interventions to address major causes of maternal and newborn deaths.
The framework incorporates E-MOTIVE for managing postpartum haemorrhage, the modified Fetal Medicine Foundation algorithm for pre-eclampsia risk assessment, the Safer Births Bundle of Care, Practical Obstetric Multi-Professional Training and Essential Newborn Care.
These interventions are designed to improve the prevention and management of complications, including excessive bleeding after childbirth, pre-eclampsia, sepsis, premature births and birth asphyxia.
The Director of Reproductive Health at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr Samuel Oyeniyi, described TEAM OB/NEO as a major implementation component of the compact.
He said, “TEAM OB/NEO is a key implementation initiative within the MAMII Compact, giving partners a clear route to strengthen the skills of frontline health workers at scale.”
Oyeniyi said the programme was supported by the Gates Foundation, MSD for Mothers and other implementing partners, including ACEPHAP, SCIDaR, CHAI and TA CONNECT.
Beyond training, the framework also incorporates maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response, evidence generation, community engagement, improved data systems and referral mechanisms.
At the event, the minister also unveiled five national policies and guidelines aimed at strengthening maternal, reproductive and newborn healthcare.
They include the Obstetric Fistula Framework, National Sexual and Reproductive Health Policy, National Post-Partum Family Planning and Self-Care Guideline, Permanent Method of Family Planning and National Task Shifting and Task Sharing Policy.
The next phase of the compact will involve agreeing on implementation targets, deploying resources to priority communities and monitoring partners’ contributions against measurable maternal and newborn health outcomes.
The Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative, known as MAMII, is a Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare initiative coordinated through the SWAp Coordination Office and launched at the November 2024 Joint Annual Review. It prioritises 172 high-burden LGAs across 33 states, working with state governments to strengthen emergency obstetric and newborn care, referral pathways, emergency transport, frontline health workers and access to essential commodities under the NHSRII and SWAp.
