Nigeria Records 60% Drop in Facility-Level Maternal Mortality, Renovates 1,500 PHCs — Ekiti Health Commissioner
State Health Commissioners report 35-percentage-point increase in quarterly reviews of operational plans, urge Nigerians to utilise upgraded primary healthcare facilities
Nigeria has recorded a significant reduction of more than 60 per cent in facility-level maternal mortality, alongside the renovation and upgrading of over 1,500 primary healthcare facilities to Level Two standards across the country, the Chairperson of the Nigerian Health Commissioners Forum, Oye Banji Filani, has disclosed.
Filani, who is the Ekiti State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, made this known while highlighting key outcomes and progress recorded by state governments at the Joint Annual Review of the health sector.
According to him, states have recorded significant improvements in health governance, institutionalisation of reforms, facility-level service delivery, skilled birth attendance and antenatal care.
He disclosed that there had been an improvement of approximately 35 percentage points in the number of states conducting quarterly reviews of their annual operational plans, a development he said had strengthened monitoring and evaluation of health programmes.
“From a governance perspective, there’s been a lot of good. In terms of facility-level gains, we’re also seeing significant improvements. We have many more facilities who now meet the Level Two criteria,” Filani said.
He explained that Level Two primary healthcare facilities are equipped with adequate health personnel, staff quarters for workers providing 24-hour services and the capacity to deliver quality healthcare to beneficiaries.
However, the commissioner identified inadequate health financing and delayed release of budgeted funds as major challenges confronting the sector, stressing the need for governments at both federal and state levels to increase funding and ensure timely disbursement of allocated resources.
Filani also highlighted the state-to-state peer learning initiative established in collaboration with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the Gates Foundation, noting that the platform enables states with outstanding performance in specific areas to share experiences and operational strategies with others.
He cited a recent peer-learning engagement in Kaduna State, where five states studied its last-mile delivery system for healthcare commodities to improve supply chain management, reduce stockouts and preserve the quality of medicines delivered to health facilities.
The forum chairperson further acknowledged support from the Federal Government through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, the World Bank-supported HOPE Project and the Global Fund, noting that effective coordination and performance-driven utilisation of resources would accelerate healthcare delivery at the sub-national level.
He urged Nigerians, particularly pregnant women, mothers and children, to take advantage of upgraded primary healthcare facilities for antenatal care, safe delivery, immunisation, family planning and treatment of common ailments, including malaria, hypertension and diabetes.
“Between last year and this year, we’ve had additional over 1,500 primary healthcare facilities across the country that have been renovated again to Level Two,” he said.
Filani also commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his commitment to healthcare reforms, increased budgetary support and efforts to strengthen human capital development, expressing optimism that sustained collaboration among governments and development partners would further improve health outcomes nationwide.
