1,000 pregnant women are set to benefit from free delivery, primary health care services, and health insurance as part of an initiative called the SaveMamaPikin project, launched in Kaduna.
Yahaya Muhammad, Project Lead at Zen Advisory Limited, who disclosed this at the project’s launch at the Kaduna State Ministry of Health, said the main objective is to offer free delivery primary health care access to women, reducing the maternal mortality rate across the state.
“Our goal is to give 1,000 mothers a safe path through childbirth by the 2025 cycle and help reduce Nigeria’s alarming maternal mortality numbers,” Yahaya said, emphasizing the initiative’s alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to reduce maternal deaths to fewer than 71 per 100,000 births by 2030.
He explained that will be collaboration with the state health institutions and community leaders to cover a wide geographical area.
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According to him, the initiative will roll out in selected communities, focusing on supporting women through healthcare policies that cover childbirth costs, which currently average around N16,000. The project will subsidize this expense, reducing the cost to approximately N10,000.
He added that the project also aims to ease the financial burden on families and encourage hospital-based deliveries.
Yahaya elaborated that if they can lower the costs and create awareness, more families will opt for safer, hospital-assisted births rather than risky home deliveries.
Commending the project, Alhaji Bala Muhammad Tijjani, a community leader, said the project “sounds very good and is very timely.”
He added that as community leaders, they would love to see such initiatives because they benefit the less privileged in society and keep the state and other stakeholders focused on addressing maternal mortality issues.