Director-General Dr. Kelechi Ohiri of Nigeria’s National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) said about 90,000 women benefited from emergency childbirth care over 18 months, as the program aims to reduce financial barriers to urgent treatment. He gave the estimate at a conference in Abuja on Oct. 29.
The scheme focuses on complications that require emergency obstetric care. Its stated purpose is to limit the role a family’s finances play in whether a woman can access treatment.
In an update issued Sept. 22, 2026, NHIA reported that maternal and newborn services had reached 79,221 mothers and 7,500 infants as of August 2026. It also listed 273 empaneled facilities for comprehensive emergency obstetric and newborn care and 22 fistula centers.
Those are separate counts: NHIA reported figures for mothers and infants reached by August, while Ohiri cited an approximate number of women benefiting over the preceding 18 months.
