MTN Group Foundation and the Gates Foundation have committed an initial $25 million to a four-year maternal health partnership aimed at expanding access to AI-enabled healthcare for women across Nigeria by 2030.
The Nigeria Maternal Health Multiplier will target 500,000 women, 5,000 frontline health workers and 500 health facilities, using artificial intelligence, mobile technology and improved connectivity to strengthen maternal healthcare.
The initiative will provide phone-based AI decision-support tools to mothers and frontline health workers, helping them access trusted, locally relevant health information and identify pregnancy and childbirth complications earlier.
It will also support access to affordable smartphones and mobile data for pregnant women while improving connectivity at primary healthcare facilities, particularly in underserved communities.
The partnership was announced at Semafor’s Next 3 Billion event in New York on the sidelines of the 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, said partnerships of this nature could help translate digital innovation into stronger public services and reach people who need them most.
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, said strengthening primary healthcare and empowering frontline health workers remained central to Nigeria’s health-sector reforms.
According to the partners, Nigeria accounts for nearly 30 per cent of maternal deaths globally, underscoring the scale of the challenge the initiative is designed to address.
MTN Group President and CEO, Ralph Mupita, said the initiative would begin in Nigeria with the ambition of developing a model that could eventually be scaled across Africa to improve maternal and child health outcomes.
Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said AI-enabled healthcare would have greater impact when its benefits reach women and communities that might otherwise be unable to afford or access the technology.
The initiative builds on Nigeria’s existing Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII) and is designed to complement ongoing maternal and child health reforms rather than operate separately from the health system.
For thousands of pregnant women and frontline health workers, the partnership is expected to bring trusted health information, earlier identification of complications and better connectivity closer to where care is needed.
With an initial $25 million investment through 2030, MTN and the Gates Foundation are positioning AI, mobile technology and connectivity as additional tools in Nigeria’s continuing effort to improve maternal healthcare and save lives.