Nigeria has introduced several policies and programmes aimed at expanding access to contraceptives, from its FP2030 commitment to achieve a modern contraceptive prevalence rate (mCPR) of 27% by 2030, to the National Family Planning Blueprint. These efforts also include task-shifting and task-sharing policies that enable trained healthcare workers to provide selected contraceptive services, as well as the inclusion of family planning services in the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF)’s Basic Minimum Package.
On the other hand, the country has also intensified efforts to reduce preventable maternal deaths through the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII). This initiative aims to address barriers to quality maternal and newborn healthcare across 172 high-burden local government areas in 33 states, with the goal of reducing maternal mortality by 30% and neonatal mortality by 20% in these areas by 2028.
Integrating Services Across the Continuum
A study published in The Lancet Global Health in 2025 found that reduced fertility accounted for 38.8% of the global decline in maternal deaths between 2000 and 2023, while improvements in maternity care accounted for 61.2%. The study estimated that increased contraceptive use prevented around 77,400 maternal deaths in the Global South in 2023. Integrating family planning into maternal healthcare could help address these issues.
