The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa, has pledged government’s action to combat the nation’s alarmingly high maternal mortality rate.

Speaking, on Friday, at JNCI 20th anniversary colloquium programme, organised by Turnkey Medical Equipment Services and Solutions Company in Lagos with the theme: ‘The Future of Healthcare Private-Public partnerships’, Alausa called on the private sector to join hands with the government in the fight to safe every mother’s life.

The World Health Organisation (WHO)’s report in May said: “Nigeria is the country with the second highest number of maternal, neonatal and child deaths worldwide.”

The report revealed that in 2020, 788 women and children died ‘per thousand’ in India and 540 women and children ‘per thousand’ died in Nigeria.

Alausa, a medical practitioner, spoke on: ‘The Emerging Trends, Opportunities and Challenges in Healthcare Public -Private Partnerships.’

He acknowledged the gravity of the situation, stating, “what is not acceptable to us as a government is this high maternal mortality rate. It is a joyous thing to be pregnant. . It is not acceptable for 88,000 young women to die because they are pregnant. We are moving quickly to attack it so that we can get to a point where we have significant reduction in our maternal mortality rate.’’

“We are also moving quickly to strengthen an healthcare system by investing in infrastructure, in our hospitals and bringing new equipment.”

The minister emphasised the government’s commitment to reversing this trend and achieving significant reductions in maternal mortality rates.
He added, “In the last three months, we have increased the number of enrollees in the nursing school from 28,000 to 66,000, doubled enrollment in medicine from 5,000 to 10,000 this academic year.

However, Alausa recognised that the government alone cannot shoulder the entire challenges the healthcare system vis facing . He therefore made an appeal to the private sector, stating, “This is your time. Take this opportunity. You have, I came from the private sector. That’s my brain.”

He urged private healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, and other stakeholders to actively participate in the fight against maternal mortality.