Health
Nigeria targets expanded MMS coverage for pregnant women
Nigeria is intensifying efforts to expand access to Multiple Micronutrient Supplements (MMS) for pregnant women, with health authorities pushing for increased local production and sustainable financing to reduce dependence on donor support.
The move was highlighted on Thursday in Abuja during a validation meeting on findings from the 2025 Market Landscaping and Segmentation Analysis.
Speaking at the event, Olufunmilola Adegbite, Director and Head of the Nutrition Department at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, said strengthening domestic manufacturing would be crucial to achieving the country’s maternal health targets.
“Local production will be critical in achieving the country’s ambition for reaching pregnant women with MMS and ensuring long-term sustainability,” she said.
According to Ms Adegbite, local manufacturing would improve the availability of supplements, reduce dependence on imports, and protect supply chains from global disruptions.
Six-state study
The 2025 market landscape analysis covered Lagos, Kano, Bauchi, Imo, Niger and Bayelsa, selected to reflect Nigeria’s diverse geographical zones and market segments.
Commissioned by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in collaboration with Sight and Life and the development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), the study examined financing systems and broader implementation requirements needed to support nationwide MMS scale-up.
Researchers assessed existing health financing mechanisms alongside key implementation enablers, including supply chains, regulatory frameworks and stakeholder engagement.
Why MMS matters
MMS are daily antenatal supplements containing iron, folic acid and other essential vitamins and minerals needed to support maternal nutrition and healthier birth outcomes.
Unlike conventional iron-folic acid supplements, MMS provide a broader range of micronutrients.
Evidence suggests the intervention can further reduce the risks of low birth weight, preterm delivery and other adverse pregnancy outcomes.
Ms Adegbite said Nigeria has made significant progress in aligning with global maternal nutrition standards.
According to her, MMS was approved for use in 2021, incorporated into the National Essential Medicines List and integrated into national guidelines on micronutrient deficiency control and antenatal care management.
“These achievements demonstrate Nigeria’s commitment to improving maternal and newborn nutritional outcomes,” she said.
Financing remains critical
Despite these policy gains, Ms Adegbite said considerable work remains to ensure effective implementation and wider access.
She identified sustainable financing as a major requirement for expansion, noting that mechanisms such as the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) and dedicated federal and state budget allocations could help support broader coverage.
She added that findings from the market analysis would provide evidence to guide policy decisions, investment priorities and implementation strategies.
Although progress has been made in institutionalising MMS, she said challenges persist in supply systems, regulation, financing and stakeholder coordination.
Concerns over donor dependence
In her remarks, the Country Manager of Sight and Life, Zainab Abubakar, said the study sought to identify sustainable pathways for financing MMS within Nigeria’s health system.
Ms Abubakar noted that inadequate funding, limited insurance coverage and heavy reliance on out-of-pocket spending continue to restrict access to maternal nutrition services.
“The research assessed the health financing landscape in Nigeria to identify viable pathways for sustainable domestic financing,” she said.
“It explored opportunities for resource mobilisation, evaluated potential funding mechanisms, highlighted implementation bottlenecks and developed context-specific recommendations.”
‘Women’s issues need funding’
Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the President on Health and dRPC board member, Salma Anas, called for stronger political commitment to maternal nutrition programmes.
Ms Anas said anaemia in pregnancy remains a major public health challenge and urged leaders to prioritise investments that benefit women and children.
According to her, programmes targeting women and children often struggle to attract adequate funding because they are incorrectly viewed as issues affecting only women.
“Every woman’s issue is a man’s business,” she said.
“Let us do away with the woman’s issue. Let’s budget it. Let’s release it and let it be used for the intended purpose.”
Background
Nigeria adopted MMS following global recommendations and growing evidence that the intervention provides greater nutritional benefits than traditional iron-folic acid supplements.
According to UNICEF, MMS contains 15 essential vitamins and minerals and has become the global reference standard for maternal micronutrient supplementation.
READ ALSO: Study ranks Lagos and Kano as the most ready for maternal supplement rollout
PREMIUM TIMES reported in 2024 that the federal government distributed about 1.3 million bottles of MMS to pregnant women across 12 states during the early phase of implementation.
UNICEF later announced that Nigeria would receive an additional 3 million bottles in 2025 through the Child Nutrition Fund, following the delivery of 3 million bottles in 2024.
However, with an estimated 12 million pregnancies recorded annually, stakeholders say existing supplies remain insufficient, highlighting the need for expanded coverage and stronger domestic investment.
They argue that shifting from donor-dependent supply chains to local manufacturing and market-based financing mechanisms will be essential to ensuring the long-term sustainability of MMS scale-up.
The immediate past chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State chapter, Babajide Saheed, has challenged the interpretation of figures showing that Lagos recorded 10,430 new HIV cases in 2025, arguing that the data reflects routine HIV testing rather than newly diagnosed infections.
Mr Saheed made the clarification on Channels Television during The Morning Brief show on Wednesday while reacting to figures from the ”State of the Health of the Nation Report 2025,” which have sparked widespread discussion on social media.
The report indicates that Lagos recorded 10,430 new HIV cases in 2025, the highest among Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and higher than the combined figures for Kaduna, Adamawa and the FCT.
During the programme, the television anchors questioned why Lagos continued to record such high numbers despite years of HIV awareness campaigns and prevention efforts.
Interpretation
Responding, Mr Saheed said the figures should not be interpreted as newly diagnosed HIV infections.
According to him, the numbers largely represent HIV positivity from routine testing carried out among people already receiving treatment, alongside newly diagnosed cases.
“It is routine testing,” he said repeatedly during the interview, urging viewers to refer to the clarification issued by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA).
He explained that people living with HIV routinely undergo tests while receiving antiretroviral treatment, and those results are captured in health records.
However, despite disagreeing with the interpretation of the figures, Mr Saheed acknowledged that Lagos continues to bear a significant HIV burden.
He described the situation as “a red flag”, noting that Lagos, alongside states such as Rivers and Benue, has consistently recorded high HIV numbers over the years.
Factors driving the trend
Mr Saheed attributed the trend to a combination of reduced international donor funding, economic hardship and challenges accessing HIV treatment.
He said funding cuts by international partners, coupled with Nigeria’s economic situation, may have contributed to disruptions in HIV services.
“If people cannot afford to feed themselves, how can they afford transportation to the hospital?” he said.
He urged the federal government to increase domestic funding for HIV programmes, invest in local production of antiretroviral medicines, strengthen public awareness campaigns and decentralise HIV treatment to primary healthcare centres and private facilities.
Mr Saheed also called for intensified public education on HIV prevention, including condom use, abstinence and early testing, particularly among young people and women, whom he identified among the groups most affected.
PREMIUM TIMES review
A review of the 2025 Final State of the Health of the Nation Report, produced by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, confirmed that Lagos recorded 10,430 new HIV cases in 2025, down from 14,622 in 2024.
The report also shows that Lagos recorded the highest number of reported new HIV cases among the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Further review of the data shows that, aside from Lagos, the highest figures were recorded in Rivers (6,287), Kano (6,010), Akwa Ibom (5,413), Taraba (4,854), Benue (4,804), Anambra (4,468) and Kaduna (3,699).
Other states
The report revealed that other states recorded comparatively lower figures, including Adamawa (2,989), Bauchi (2,736), FCT (2,764), Sokoto (2,592), Abia (2,546), Cross River (2,545), Imo (2,539), Delta (2,469), Nasarawa (2,410), Borno (2,311), Zamfara (2,134), Ogun (2,107), Plateau (2,084), Niger (2,020), Ebonyi (2,015), Oyo (1,910), Jigawa (1,776), Kogi (1,752), Ondo (1,622), Edo (1,619), Kebbi (1,572), Katsina (1,541), Yobe (1,483), Enugu (1,479), Kwara (1,371), Osun (1,093), Gombe (1,083), Bayelsa (982) and Ekiti (462).
READ ALSO: US HIV funding withdrawal from South Africa could cost lives, UNAIDS warns
The report also shows that Ekiti recorded the lowest figure nationwide, followed by Bayelsa, Gombe, Osun, Kwara, Enugu and Yobe, while Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Akwa Ibom, Taraba and Benue recorded the highest numbers.
NACA’s earlier clarification
In April, NACA cautioned against interpreting similar state-by-state HIV figures as representing the actual burden of the disease, saying they had been taken out of context.
The agency explained that the figures reflected HIV positivity from routine testing conducted in health facilities and should not be used to estimate HIV prevalence or incidence or rank states by disease burden. It said such data are influenced by factors including population size, testing coverage and reporting practices.
NACA also warned that HIV data should only be generated, interpreted, and disseminated by authorised government health institutions, in line with established protocols, to avoid misleading the public.
Nigeria has launched its first public-facing Mental Health Policy Commitment Tracker, a digital platform designed to independently monitor implementation of the country’s mental health laws and policies amid concerns over slow progress in carrying out key reforms.
Developed by advocacy organisation Nigerian Mental Health (NMH), the tracker was officially launched virtually on Monday after an initial public unveiling in May.
NMH announced the launch in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.
According to the organisation, the platform enables policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations and members of the public to monitor progress on commitments under the National Mental Health Act and related policies, including mental health financing, workforce development, treatment access and state-level reforms.
Why the tracker matters
Late President Muhammadu Buhari signed the National Mental Health Bill into law in January 2023 after two failed legislative attempts dating back to 2003.
The legislation replaced the outdated Lunacy Act and marked a major shift in Nigeria’s approach to mental healthcare by strengthening the rights of people living with mental health conditions and providing for institutions such as a Department of Mental Health Services and a Mental Health Fund.
However, more than three years later, implementation of several provisions of the law has remained slow.
According to NMH, key institutional structures required under the Act, including the Department of Mental Health, have yet to be fully established.
The organisation also said the federal government missed its December 2025 target to fully decriminalise attempted suicide, while implementation of the 2023 National Mental Health Policy and the country’s first Suicide Prevention Policy Framework has been limited.
It said these implementation gaps informed the development of the tracker, which is intended to independently verify whether mental health commitments are being translated into concrete action.
Speaking at the launch, NMH founder Chime Asonye said policy commitments should be accompanied by measurable implementation.
“Visibility must be matched by measurable execution,” he said, adding that the platform is designed to ensure commitments lead to tangible legal, institutional and service delivery outcomes.
According to NMH, the tracker serves as a public dashboard that aggregates government data, legislative updates, budget documents, verified stakeholder submissions and community-reported evidence.
Each policy commitment is assigned an implementation status, such as “Not Started, In Progress, Delayed or Completed”, allowing users to monitor progress across the federal and state levels.
The platform tracks regulatory milestones under the National Mental Health Act, as well as governance structures, budget allocations, workforce capacity, access to treatment, affordability and broader rights-based reforms.
Stakeholders back initiative
The launch brought together government officials, policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations, development partners, media practitioners and representatives of the creative industry.
Among the organisations supporting the initiative are Lagos Mind, Mind Over Matters NG, Stilt NG, Our Beta Life, the Mental Health Transformation Organisation (MHT) and Hevolve Foundation.
Mental health advocate and musician Hadiza Blell-Olo, popularly known as Di’ja, urged public figures to move beyond raising awareness by supporting partnerships that strengthen mental health reforms, noting that the tracker provides a framework for improving policy accountability.
Also speaking, the National Mental Health Coordinator at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Tunde Ojo, said independent accountability mechanisms can help strengthen implementation and improve service delivery.
NMH said the platform is open to policymakers, practitioners, researchers and members of the public, who can submit verified implementation updates and feedback to improve transparency and support mental health reforms across the country.
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