The Federal Government has promised to take steps to reduce the maternal mortality rate of 512 deaths per 100,000 births within the next one year.
It also assured of tackling the neo-natal mortality, which at present stands at 39 deaths per 1000 live births and under-5 mortality rate of 132 deaths per 1000 live births, in the coming months.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Social Development Goals (SDGs), Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, gave the assurances on Tuesday.
She spoke after defending the 2021 budgets before the Senate Committee on Sustainable Development Goals.
She said the SGDs office had already begun the construction of Mother and Child Centres and strategic partnerships across the country with the aim of promoting the health of the mothers and children, reducing maternal and child mortality and improving Nigeria’s health indices.
She said, “A very significant step towards tackling the problems associated with infants, neo-natal and maternal care was taken recently with the commissioning of a fully equipped, state of the art 100-Bed Mother and Child Care, MCC hospital in Ifon Community, Ose Local Government Area of Lagos State.
“The facilities are equipped to stop maternal, child deaths. The facilities are strategic interventions directly linked to the achievement of SDG-3 on ‘Quality Health and Well-being for all’ and other cross-cutting SDGs.
“These Mother and Child Centres (MCC) aim to address the high prevalence of maternal and child mortalities in Nigeria in line with the mandate of OSSAP-SDGs to implement or support policies and programmes aimed at fast-tracking the achievement of the SDGs in Nigeria.
“An example of this is the 100-Bed Mother and Child Centre we are commissioning today – built and donated to the Ondo State Government by the OSSAP-SDGs.
“It is therefore imperative that the State Government owns these strategic interventions and ensure their sustainability for the benefit of our people.”
Orelope-Adefulire called on corporate organisations, philanthropists and foundations to continue to partner the government by discharging their Corporate Social Responsibilities.
“We will continue to prioritise programmes and interventions with potential large-scale impact for achieving the SDGs in Nigeria,” she added.
