The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says primary healthcare visits have risen to 45 million quarterly, while 773,000 pregnant women have been linked to care. Muyi Aina, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of NPHCDA, disclosed this during the agency’s quarterly media briefing on Thursday in Abuja. Mr Aina said the increase followed ongoing reforms aimed at improving access to trusted, quality primary healthcare services nationwide.
He added that the linking of pregnant women to care was part of efforts to reduce maternal and newborn deaths. “When we started this journey, the quarterly attendance in terms of service contacts in the facilities was about 33 million or 34 million a quarter. Right now, it undulates between 43 million and 45 million,” he said. He said service contacts peaked at 46 million in 2025, noting that numbers continued to rise across different healthcare service areas.
“I can tell you that the numbers continue to go up, and in fact, that is true, whether you’re looking at Ante-Natal Care (ANC) attendance, at immunisation, or at all of the other service lines,” he said. According to him, the growing utilisation shows that Nigerians are responding positively to government efforts to strengthen PHC delivery.
Mr Aina said the agency was also implementing targeted interventions to address major causes of illness and deaths, particularly maternal and newborn mortality. He identified the Maternal and Newborn Mortality Reduction Initiative (MAMII) as one of the programmes designed to improve outcomes for pregnant women and newborns. “We decided to create an end-to-end framework to support pregnant women through pregnancy, delivery, and immediate postnatal care for the mother and for the baby,” he said.
The NPHCDA boss said MAMII connects pregnant women with caseworkers, ensures necessary investigations are conducted, and links high-risk pregnancies to appropriate care facilities.