Nigeria accounts for at least 25 per cent of maternal deaths worldwide, with one in 22 Nigerian women facing the lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related complications, the United Nations has warned.
UN Women Country Representative to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Beatrice Eyong, disclosed the figures on Wednesday at the second annual National Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Network Conference in Abuja.
Eyong described maternal mortality as a serious national challenge requiring urgent and collective action from government, development partners, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.
She said a Nigerian woman faced a lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy-related complications of one in 22, compared with approximately one in 4,000 in developed countries.
The UN representative stressed that no woman should lose her life while giving birth, particularly when medical technology and available healthcare interventions could help prevent many pregnancy-related deaths.
She urged stakeholders to move beyond policy declarations and tackle the underlying social and economic barriers preventing women from accessing essential healthcare services.
According to Eyong, maternal deaths are often linked to deeper gender-related challenges, including mistreatment by healthcare workers, harmful social norms and limited financial empowerment.
Meanwhile, President of Lawyers Alert, Dr Rommy Mom, called for improved access to free legal services for women and other vulnerable groups.
Mom said financial difficulties often prevented vulnerable women from seeking justice, despite the existence of laws designed to protect their rights.
He emphasised the need to make legal support more accessible to those unable to afford legal representation.
Also speaking, Minister of Youth Development, Olawande Ayodele, said young people could not fully realise their potential or participate meaningfully in governance and economic development without access to safe and equitable sexual and reproductive health information and services.
Represented by his Senior Special Assistant on Gender Matters, Kehinde Awujoola, the minister described sexual and reproductive health and rights as fundamental human rights and an important component of empowerment.
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to improving reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health.
Represented by the Director of the Health Promotion Division, John Uruakpa, Pate said reproductive health remained central to the government’s efforts to strengthen the healthcare system and achieve universal health coverage.
Similarly, Coordinator of the Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Movement in Nigeria, Confidence Ezeala, called for stronger collaboration between government, civil society organisations and development partners.
She raised concerns about growing anti-rights narratives, conflict, climate-related displacement and technology-facilitated abuse.
Ezeala also estimated that more than 70 million women and girls in Nigeria could be at risk of online abuse by 2027.
The conference focused on redefining sexual and reproductive health and rights through gender justice, innovation and collective action.
