# MTN and Gates Foundation Commit $25 Million to Nigeria's Maternal Health Crisis

> With Nigeria accounting for more than a quarter of the world's maternal deaths, the four-year digital health partnership aims to reach 500,000 women and 5,000 frontline health workers with AI-assisted care tools by 2030.

- Source: African Economy
- Canonical URL: https://africaneconomy.net/article/nigeria-maternal-health-digital-initiative-25-million
- Author: African Economy Staff
- Section: Tech & Startups
- Published: 2026-10-21T11:20:10.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-21T11:20:10.000Z
- Tags: Nigeria, maternal health, MTN, Gates Foundation, digital health

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The MTN Group Foundation and the Gates Foundation have launched a $25 million, four-year partnership to expand digital maternal health services across Nigeria, targeting 500,000 women, 5,000 frontline health workers and 500 primary healthcare facilities by 2030, according to a report by Forbes Africa. The initiative responds to a stark figure: Nigeria accounted for an estimated 28.7 percent of global maternal deaths in 2023, roughly 75,000 women, with a maternal mortality ratio of 993 deaths per 100,000 live births and a lifetime maternal death risk for 15-year-old girls of about one in 25.

The program, called the Nigeria Maternal Health Multiplier, combines AI-enabled clinical decision-support tools with affordable smartphones, mobile data access and improved connectivity at healthcare facilities, aiming to give frontline workers in under-resourced clinics tools closer to what better-funded facilities already have. Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole accounted for 70 percent of global maternal deaths in 2023, and in Nigeria only about 52 percent of pregnant women aged 15 to 49 received four or more antenatal care visits as of the most recent national health survey.

Gates Foundation Nigeria Director Uche Amaonwu framed sustainability as the program's central design question, rather than simply who eventually takes over its funding. MTN CEO Ralph Mupita said the goal is to prove out a model that could be replicated across other African health systems facing similar gaps, while Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman pointed to philanthropy's role in making sure AI-driven health tools actually reach underserved populations rather than concentrating in wealthier urban centers first.

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Originally published by African Economy. Free to cite with attribution and a link to https://africaneconomy.net/article/nigeria-maternal-health-digital-initiative-25-million.