First Lady Oluremi Tinubu Flags Off Maternal Incentives to Slash Nigeria’s High Death Rates
Abuja, Nigeria—September 15, 2026—In a determined push against one of Nigeria’s most stubborn public health crises, First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu on Monday flagged off a major package of maternal health incentives aimed at encouraging more women to seek timely care and reducing preventable deaths among mothers and newborns.
The national launch of the incentives, held at the State House in Abuja under the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII), marks a significant expansion of the federal government’s efforts to address the country’s disproportionately high maternal and neonatal mortality rates.
What the Incentives Include
The package features 215,000 Mama kits and bags—the second batch after 110,000 distributed in 2025—alongside 40,000 maternal food-support packs and 40,000 sets of essential newborn clothing.
These practical items are designed to ease the financial and logistical burdens that often keep vulnerable pregnant women away from antenatal clinics, skilled delivery services and postnatal care.
Speaking at the flag-off, Senator Tinubu stressed that pregnancy and childbirth should be moments of hope rather than fear.
“This occasion represents a further step towards ensuring that every Nigerian child has a healthy start in life and that no woman loses her life while giving birth,” she said, while calling on state and local governments, traditional leaders, partners, and communities to help ensure the items reach those who need them most.
The Scale of the Challenge and the Response
Nigeria continues to account for nearly 29 percent of global maternal deaths, with a Nigerian woman facing roughly a one-in-19 lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related causes.
MAMII, launched in November 2024, deliberately focuses on 172 local government areas across 33 states.
These areas represent only about 20 percent of the country’s LGAs but account for approximately 55 percent of maternal deaths.
The initiative aims to deliver free, timely, and comprehensive care to about 2.9 million pregnant women and families, with clear targets of a 30 percent reduction in maternal mortality and a 20 percent cut in neonatal mortality in the selected areas by 2028.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare Professor Muhammad Ali Pate said the government is tackling the problem from both the supply and demand sides—strengthening primary healthcare facilities, retraining frontline workers, improving emergency referral systems, and removing financial barriers.
He noted that more than 60,000 women have already received free Caesarean sections and emergency obstetric care, while over 120,000 frontline health workers have been retrained.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, underscored the urgency, describing Nigeria’s maternal mortality burden as “unacceptably high” and emphasizing that the new incentives are intended to reinforce life-saving behaviors such as early antenatal registration, facility-based delivery, and postnatal follow-up.
Building on Progress
Officials pointed to existing gains under MAMII and related programs, including the revitalization of thousands of health facilities and the use of the National Emergency Medical Treatment and Ambulance System to transport tens of thousands of patients, many of them pregnant women, to care.
The First Lady and health ministers framed the latest rollout as part of President Bola Tinubu’s broader Renewed Hope Agenda on Health, which places maternal and child survival at the centre of national development priorities.
As the kits and support packs begin distribution, the government says the program will be expanded further to areas where uptake of services remains low.
For many families in hard-to-reach communities, the practical support—from delivery kits to food and clothing for newborns—could mean the difference between delayed care and a safer birth.
The initiative reflects a growing recognition that reducing maternal and neonatal deaths requires both stronger health systems and targeted efforts to bring women into those systems before it is too late.
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