Published by Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
Scholars say that every 13 minutes, somewhere in Nigeria, a mother dies from pregnancy or childbirth complications. Behind that bloodless statistic lies an even starker truth: the country has less than half the skilled midwives it urgently needs to save those lives. In a sweeping policy response, the administration of President Bola Tinubu has launched a multi‑pronged offensive to overhaul the nation’s midwifery workforce, scaling up training, recruiting thousands of new professionals, and for the first time in decades, forcing a pointed national conversation about who will deliver Africa’s biggest population. The centrepiece of the drive: a four‑hundred percent leap in midwifery training slots from 28,000 in 2023 to over 110,000 for the 2025 academic year, a figure that has now been further revised to 115,000. This is not a gentle policy adjustment. It is a forced march.
The Nigerian Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery (NSDNM) 2025‑2030, launched at a national summit, provides the operational blueprint. It is anchored on six pillars: expanding education and certification, strengthening deployment and retention, advancing professional regulation, improving leadership and governance, enhancing workforce data systems, and closing gaps in service delivery. “This strategy is not just another policy document,” the Coordinating Minister of Health, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, told attendees at its unveiling. “It is a practical guide for reform, innovation, and investment to build a skilled, motivated, and equitably distributed workforce capable of delivering quality care to all Nigerians.” The federal government has also approved waivers for federal health institutions, fast‑tracking recruitment. Nearly 20,000 new health workers are being hired, sixty per cent of whom are nurses and midwives. More than 70,000 frontline health workers have already been retrained nationwide, with midwives topping the list of beneficiaries.
The strategic shift is urgent. Nigeria’s maternal mortality ratio remains tragically elevated, with estimates ranging from 512 to 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births. Experts currently cite a figure of 917 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, translating to roughly 40,000 pregnancy‑related deaths annually. A Nigerian woman faces a one‑in‑twenty‑two lifetime risk of dying from pregnancy‑related causes. The UNFPA has warned that the country requires an additional 70,000 midwives by 2030 to meet World Health Organization standards. At the same time, the annual nurse‑to‑population ratio stands at roughly one nurse per 1,260 people, well below the WHO benchmark of one per 1,000. The Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria (NMCN) estimates that only about 154,000 midwives are currently registered nationwide, a fraction of what is needed.
The government’s response is three‑dimensional simultaneously expanding the educational pipeline, improving retention through better working conditions, and unleashing targeted interventions for rural communities. The Ministry of Health has pushed annual nurse production from 23,000 to over 115,000, but officials admit that integration remains a challenge. Without adequate employment slots, thousands of trained midwives risk being left stranded. To bridge this gap, the NMCN has launched the Community Nursing and Midwifery Programme, where local communities sponsor trainees, and local governments commit to hiring them. The idea is simple yet radical: break the cycle where midwives train, cannot find jobs, and either emigrate or abandon the profession altogether.
The educational offensive is being supported by both domestic funding and international partners. At an event in Abuja marking the International Day of the Midwife, Professor Pate announced that the ministry has launched the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation and Initiative (MAMII), already active in 33 states, to drive down deaths through improved primary care and emergency response. The theme for this year’s celebration, “One Million More Midwives,” directly echoed the global shortage. Nigeria has also become the first country in West Africa to adopt the Best Practice Spotlight Organization (BPSO) model, developed in partnership with the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. The initiative promotes evidence‑based nursing and midwifery practice, particularly in maternal and neonatal care. And in February 2026, the government distributed new digital tools and training equipment, supported by the Gates Foundation, WHO, UNFPA, and HISA, to twenty colleges of nursing sciences across the country.
Workforce retention lies at the heart of the policy. The NSDNM explicitly includes a National Retention Strategy, acknowledging that training alone will not keep midwives at their posts. The government has already retrained over 69,000 frontline health workers and is investing in digital accreditation systems to reduce bureaucratic bottlenecks. The NMCN has also introduced an Electronic Accreditation Management System (EAMS), supported by WHO, to strengthen transparency and compliance monitoring. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s adoption of the Best Practice Frontline Organisation Model, first of its kind in West Africa, aims to raise professional standards and improve maternal and neonatal outcomes.
The sheer scale of the training expansion has been matched by a quiet but growing constituency calling for gender reform. Experts have begun advocating for more men to enter midwifery, arguing that cultural perceptions restricting the field to women are exacerbating workforce shortages. They note that in 2025, the Minister for Health and Social Welfare confirmed about 7,500 nurses and midwives had left Nigeria in just five years, and over 14,800 Nigerian‑trained nurses and midwives were licensed to practice in the United Kingdom between 2017 and September 2024. The exodus, sometimes called “Japa” or “brain drain”, continues to accelerate. The government’s retention strategy therefore includes not only better pay and conditions but also leadership career pathways, ensuring midwives see a future in Nigeria.
On the ground, midwives remain the unsung heroes of the nation’s health system. A survey by the EQUAL research consortium in northeast Nigeria found that many midwives continue to work in conflict zones, delivering babies under threat of violence and with desperately limited supplies. One graduate told researchers: “The community lacks professionals who can provide care, so I wanted to study community midwifery and return to offer my services.” As the International Day of the Midwife came to a close, Professor Pate summed up the administration’s resolve: “Midwives play an indispensable role in safeguarding lives, providing care from pregnancy through childbirth and beyond. They remain at the frontline of maternal and newborn healthcare delivery, particularly in underserved and rural communities. No health system can provide optimal maternal and child health services without having an adequate number of skilled midwives.”
The plan is ambitious, and the obstacles are equally so. But for the first time in years, there is a sense that the profession is being taken seriously. The numbers are large, the deadlines are tight, and the lives at stake are counted not in statistics but in the cries of newborns and the relief of mothers who survive. Whether the policy translates into saved lives depends on implementation. But the direction is set. Nigeria is no longer merely calling for more midwives. It is training them, deploying them, and, for the first time, refusing to let them disappear.
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