The federal government has launched the maternal and neo-natal mortality reduction innovative initiative in Kano, to improve access to healthcare services for pregnant women and reduce maternal mortality.
Speaking during the opening ceremony of the implementation design workshop in Kano on Monday, Dr. Dayo Adeyoju, said the implementation of the initiative will help in the actualisation of the President Bola Tinubu’s dream of ensuring no woman or child dies without any justification.
The programme he stated, prioritises 172 local government areas in the country that contribute 55 percent of maternal deaths among which include Kano with 18 council areas, Katsina (15 local governments), Borno (11) as well as Kaduna and Jigawa States.
“We will be doing a process of doing a state context specific to look at real drivers here, proffer solutions and interventions that will enable us crash maternal death across the country,” Adeyoju said.
While noting that Nigeria contributes 20 percent of global maternal mortality deaths, he reiterated the federal government’s commitment through the sectoral wide approach and working with other stakeholders, to ensure it crashes mortality among women and children by addressing issues of access, and shortages of health personnel, amongst others.
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Kano State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Abubakar Labaran, lamented the high rate of maternal/child mortality, zero dose children and high cases of malnutrition, it inherited from the previous administration in the state.
He emphasized the state government’s efforts at improving healthcare delivery, noting that the state has introduced free ante-natal care and delivery in over 60 health facilities in the state.
The health commissioner added that the state government has increased budgetary provisions for family planning, prioritises and improved vaccine uptake and has instituted community surveillance, among others to ensure citizens of the state recieve quality healthcare.
Dr. Labaran also expressed the state’s willingness to key into any effort, aimed at addressing maternal and child mortality.
