Private Sector Financing is Key to Improved Maternal Care in Nigeria

Maureen Moneke and Adanna Opara (Lead writers) Nigeria’s maternal mortality burden remains unacceptably high and points to persistent gaps in access to timely, quality maternity care. Despite financing reforms such as the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) and Direct Facility Financing (DFF), maternal deaths remain high, estimated at 993 deaths per 100,000 live births. […]

2025 Celebrating Womanhood Art Gala Report

Lights Out, Lives Lost: The Human Cost of Hospital Blackouts on Maternal Health

Sunday Oko and Mahdi Garba (Lead writers)“Thirty minutes into my wife’s C-section, NEPA [a colloquial term for electricity distribution companies] interrupted [the hospital’s] electricity,” recalled Shehu Danjuma Umar, in a Facebook post. He added that the government-owned facility had no fuel for the back-up generator meant to power the theatre. When fuel eventually arrived, the […]

One Scar and A Lifetime of Suffering: The Link Between FGM and Obstetric Fistula

Dr Adachi Ekeh (Lead Writer) It begins with a cut. A seemingly small incision; often celebrated as a rite of passage and a symbol of purity and tradition. However, for millions of Nigerian women and girls, that single cut marks the beginning of a life-altering nightmare characterised by isolation, pain and stigma. Female Genital Mutilation […]