MTN Group Foundation and the Gates Foundation have launched a four-year digital health initiative in Nigeria aimed at using artificial intelligence, mobile connectivity and affordable digital devices to improve maternal healthcare for women, particularly those in underserved communities.

The Nigeria Maternal Health Multiplier, announced by MTN Group, parent company of MTN Nigeria, is designed to create an integrated digital ecosystem linking pregnant women, frontline health workers and primary healthcare facilities.

The partnership is backed by an initial investment of approximately $25 million between 2026 and 2030, comprising direct and in-kind contributions from MTN and the Gates Foundation. The organisations said the investment is intended to catalyse additional funding and potentially support expansion of the model into other markets.

The initiative targets 500,000 women by 2030, with plans to equip 5,000 frontline health workers with digital tools for earlier identification of pregnancy and childbirth complications and support 500 health facilities to provide more consistent maternal healthcare.

The partnership is backed by an initial investment of approximately $25 million between 2026 and 2030, comprising direct and in-kind contributions from MTN and the Gates Foundation. The organisations said the investment is intended to catalyse additional funding and potentially support expansion of the model into other markets. The initiative targets 500,000 women by 2030, with plans to equip 5,000 frontline health workers with digital tools for earlier identification of pregnancy and childbirth complications and support 500 health facilities to provide more consistent maternal healthcare.

Digital health tools to help identify potential warning signs, support follow-up

At the centre of the programme is the deployment of AI-enabled, phone-based decision-support tools for both healthcare workers and mothers. These tools are intended to provide timely health guidance, help identify potential warning signs and support follow-up throughout pregnancy, childbirth and the postnatal period.

The initiative will also address two practical barriers to digital healthcare adoption: the affordability of devices and data, and inadequate connectivity at primary healthcare facilities.

Under the programme, pregnant women will have access to affordable smartphones and mobile data, while frontline health workers will receive connected devices providing access to real-time clinical guidance. Connectivity improvements at healthcare facilities are also planned to ensure that digital services can function more reliably, irrespective of location.

The programme is to complement Nigeria’s existing maternal and child health reforms, particularly the Federal Ministry of Health’s Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII), deployed under the government’s Sector-Wide Approach to health.

Nigeria’s maternal health burden was a key factor in its selection as the first market for the Maternal Health Multiplier. According to figures cited by the partners, Nigeria accounts for nearly 30% of maternal deaths globally, while only 59% of women complete four or more antenatal care visits.

The initiative therefore places digital technology not simply as a communication channel, but as an additional layer supporting the country’s primary healthcare system. Its model combines connectivity, devices, mobile data and AI-enabled decision support with existing healthcare infrastructure and frontline personnel.

Dr Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, said the partnership demonstrated how digital transformation could be applied to foundational public services.

“For too long,” the Minister said, “the biggest barrier to improving service delivery in Nigeria, whether in health, agriculture, or education, has not been a lack of innovations, but a lack of focus on the foundational systems necessary to drive adoption.”

Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, said strengthening primary healthcare and frontline health workers remained central to the government’s health sector reforms.

For MTN, the programme extends the role of its telecommunications infrastructure beyond conventional voice and data services into digital public-health delivery. The group’s contribution combines its connectivity infrastructure, digital inclusion capabilities, mobile financial services, device distribution networks and local market execution capacity.

Ralph Mupita, MTN Group President and CEO, said artificial intelligence could make health information more personalised, predictive and accessible when deployed appropriately.

“Starting in Nigeria, our ambition is to demonstrate a scalable model for improving maternal and child health outcomes across Africa,” Mupita said.

The Gates Foundation says it brings expertise in maternal, newborn and child health, digital health innovation, responsible AI and evidence-based scale-up to the partnership.

Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, said the programme was intended to ensure that AI-enabled healthcare did not become concentrated among populations already able to afford digital services.

The partnership represents an emerging approach to digital health in which connectivity is treated as part of the healthcare delivery infrastructure rather than simply as a telecommunications service. For Nigeria, its effectiveness will ultimately depend on whether the AI tools are clinically reliable, usable by health workers and mothers, available in relevant local contexts, and supported by functioning primary healthcare facilities.

The four-year programme is expected to provide evidence on whether combining AI-enabled health guidance with affordable devices, mobile data and facility connectivity can improve access to maternal healthcare at scale.