Stakeholders in maternal and child health have called for decisive political commitment and coordinated action to transition Nigeria from Iron Folic Acid (IFA) supplementation to Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) for pregnant women.

The call was made at a high-level panel discussion titled “Moving Research to Market: Scaling Multiple Micronutrient Supplementation (MMS) for Maternal Health Impact in Nigeria,” organised by the Development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC) in collaboration with Sight and Life during the 7th Nigeria Academy of Science (NAS) Annual Scientific Conference in Abuja.

Projects Director of dRPC, Dr Stanley Ukpai, said the transition to MMS is critical to addressing Nigeria’s persistent maternal nutrition challenges, particularly anaemia among pregnant women.
“Nigeria continues to face a significant maternal nutrition burden, with millions of women experiencing anaemia during pregnancy despite existing interventions,” Ukpai said.

He noted that scaling up MMS is essential to reducing maternal and neonatal mortality, adding that Nigeria has already made meaningful progress in preparing the groundwork for the adoption of improved public health commodities.
“Every public health commodity follows a transition pathway from evidence generation to scale-up, and Nigeria has made commendable strides along this path,” he said.

President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN), Professor Salisu Abubakar, highlighted the proven effectiveness and acceptability of MMS, projecting that by 2029, at least 70 per cent of pregnant women should have access to the supplement during antenatal care.
“For decades, we have relied on iron folic acid, which provides only two micronutrients,” Abubakar said. “The UNIMMAP formulation of MMS contains 15 essential micronutrients and has shown clear benefits not only in reducing anaemia but also in improving birth outcomes.”

However, he acknowledged key barriers to nationwide scale-up, including limited access to healthcare facilities and prevailing economic constraints. He urged government authorities to support local production of MMS to ensure sustainability.
“Clear policies are needed to enable in-country manufacturing of MMS, alongside broad public awareness campaigns to educate communities on its benefits,” he added.

Country Programme Manager of Sight and Life Nigeria, Zainab Abubakar, spoke on efforts to build demand and strengthen supply chains for MMS across the country.
She noted that current supplies are largely donor-supported and fall short of national requirements.
“Most of the MMS available today is donated, and this is insufficient to meet the country’s needs,” she said.

Abubakar also identified funding gaps as a major challenge to scale-up and revealed that ongoing research is examining sustainable financing mechanisms for antenatal care services in Nigeria.
The stakeholders concluded by calling for urgent action to move MMS from research to market, emphasising the need for market development, local manufacturing pathways and sustainable scale-up strategies to reach vulnerable pregnant women nationwide.