Otamere Gladness 
ABUJA, Nigeria – Health experts and policymakers have renewed calls for stronger political commitment, increased workforce investment and clearer reforms to strengthen maternal healthcare services across Nigeria.
The call was made on Tuesday at the 2025 Task-Shifting Symposium in Abuja, themed “Bridging research, policy, and practice for better maternal healthcare in Nigeria.”
Mandate Secretary of the FCTA Health Services and Environment Secretariat, Adedolapo Fasawe, said task shifting — the delegation of specific duties from highly specialised professionals to trained lower-cadre workers — remains essential for expanding maternal healthcare access.
However, she cautioned that its success depends on clear protocols, structured supervision, continuous training and strict adherence to evidence-based practice.
She stressed that primary health research plays a vital role in identifying systemic barriers and shaping policy.
“Research helps us understand systemic barriers, guides context-sensitive interventions, and supports accountability and continuous improvement,” she said. “Policy becomes truly effective only when it is constantly informed by frontline evidence.”
Fasawe reaffirmed the FCT’s commitment to cutting preventable maternal and child deaths, insisting that “there’s no reason for a woman to die while bringing life into the world.”
Nigeria remains one of the world’s worst-affected countries for maternal mortality, with 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHO’s 2023 progress report shows Nigeria recorded 82,000 maternal deaths, 181,000 stillbirths and 277,000 neonatal deaths, representing 12 per cent of global totals.
Public Health Physician and Oxford researcher, Francis Ayomoh, called for stronger government action to address severe workforce shortages. His study found that “at least 50 per cent of primary healthcare workers in the FCT are unpaid volunteers,” relying on stipends rather than salaries.
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