Pate reports major health gains as maternal, newborn deaths drop in 2025

Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, has announced major improvements in the country’s health sector, citing significant reductions in maternal and newborn deaths, expanded healthcare coverage, and strengthened service delivery across states.

Prof. Pate disclosed this on Wednesday, November 12, at the opening of the 2025 Joint Annual Review (JAR) Conference held at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

According to him, the Health Sector Compact signed in 2023 in the presence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has continued to drive progress toward universal health coverage.

Announcing the achievements, he said 84 percent of key performance indicators under the Presidential Bond commitments had been achieved as of the third quarter of 2025.

“That is 37 out of 41. And 35 states out of 36, including FCT, have now conducted their state joint annual reviews and state performance dialogues with active citizen participation in sector decision-making at all levels.

“All the 36 states and FCT have their annual operational plans that are fully aligned with the health sector strategic blueprint and the priorities indicated therein.

“72% of states have established functional non-communicable disease coordination mechanisms to deal with hypertension, diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases,” he said.

Prof. Pate stressed that these results demonstrate that the Compact commitments “were not just words on paper” but had translated into tangible actions at federal and state levels.

He noted that Nigeria is steadily shifting from fragmented, donor-driven interventions to more coordinated, nationally owned systems focused on achieving measurable results.

On service coverage, the minister revealed consistent progress across reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health indicators.

“According to the quality-adjusted DHIS-2 data, the percentage of deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants is now more than 90%. Given where we were, I think that’s a remarkable improvement,” he said.

He added that the fourth antenatal care coverage rose from 39% in 2023 to over 50% in 2024 and 2025, while new family planning acceptance increased by 10% between the first and third quarters of 2025.

“The progress is a promising trend for crushing maternal mortality, emphasizing that half of women of reproductive health age were using modern contraception which is very good because it meets the augmented needs of our women, respecting their rights, tradition, culture, and values,” Pate stated.

The minister also reported modest improvements in vaccination coverage, noting that the country hit its targets for measles and other key antigens.

He said utilisation of Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) facilities had surged from 10 million visits in Q1 2024 to 45 million in Q2 2025, reflecting renewed public confidence in the primary healthcare system.

“The work that is being done in the health sector by the President Tinubu-led administration is beginning to show results by people showing up for services,” he added.

According to Pate, maternal deaths declined by 17 percent, and newborn deaths by 12 percent across 172 targeted local government areas, due to data-driven interventions.

“Because maternal death is not distributed equally across all local governments, using good data, we identified those and we focused on them. We’re already beginning to see a 17 percent reduction in maternal deaths and 12 percent reduction in newborn deaths,” he said.

The minister further disclosed that 435 health facilities had been revitalised, while 15,000 community health workers were recruited and 70,000 frontline health workers retrained, as part of efforts to reach the target of 120,000 by 2027.

“The skilled birth attendance coverage has increased by 33 percent and for the pre-local governments, 4,000 free caesarean sections have been conducted in the NHIA facilities,” he said.

Prof. Pate said this year’s achievements build on the baseline established in 2024 and serve as a key accountability tool to track progress and address gaps.

The conference was attended by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, and the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu.

A highlight of the event was the signing of the Compact Addendum, reinforcing the federal and state governments’ commitment to health sector transformation.