For long, Sokoto State has battled with one of the highest rates of maternal mortality rates in the country. It’s reported 1,576 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, 78 infant deaths per 1,000, including 119 under-five deaths per 1,000.
Recently, the state government inaugurated the federal government’s initiative, the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative, or MAMII, which offers a ray of hope for mothers and newborns in the state.
The programme is designed to address the root causes of maternal and newborn deaths through community-driven and health-system reforms.
The initiative begins with a five-day stakeholder planning session aimed at identifying local barriers to safe childbirth, from delayed access to emergency care to shortages of skilled health workers.
Unlike past programmes that focused on raising awareness, NAMII invites contextual community solutions which meet women at their level.
A central feature of this project lies in the integrated approach. The primary health centres have been revamped to improved manpower, equipment, and referral systems.
The government has also committed to the upgrading of rural facilities so women from rural locations may access the safe delivery services without the necessity for long journeys.
The families also are being encouraged to trust and utilise the local clinics in order to reinforce a culture of preventive care.
Global partners have stressed the importance of equity, ensuring that rural and low-income women receive the same standard of care as those in urban centres.
To achieve this, the project is embedding accountability measures — transparent reporting systems, data-driven planning, and ongoing community engagement to adapt services to local needs.
What distinguishes this programme is how well it fits into larger innovations also remaking maternal health care in Nigeria. In Kano, for instance, solar-powered health facilities operate 24-hour maternity units, eliminating nighttime gaps for emergency attention.
In Ekiti, community-based health insurance schemes enable families to pool their resources so that they can access antenatal and delivery services more easily.
Smart solutions for maternal health
And in many parts of the Northeast, mobile health teams often made up of midwives are taking care of remote communities.
In villages like Garmiri village, Borno State, such teams provide basic maternal and child health care, eliminating preventable deaths in otherwise isolated communities.
Sokoto’s new project taps into these lessons, positioning itself as a replicable model. By combining infrastructure upgrades, workforce development, and grassroots education, it offers a systemic response to one of Nigeria’s most entrenched public health challenges.
Continuity is essential at this point, and the real test will be to keep these centres running, ensuring the proper support for the health workers and mainstreaming the system into the daily lives of the people it reaches.
Despite this, for a lot of families, the message is firmly stated — maternal deaths are not unavoidable but with proper planning, creativity, and community action, Sokoto may be charting a course that could save thousands of lives, and become a model for other states to follow.
Summary not available at this time.
