MTN Group Foundation and the Gates Foundation have committed approximately $25 million to a four-year initiative aimed at expanding access to technology-enabled maternal healthcare for 500,000 women in Nigeria by 2030.
The partnership, announced on the sidelines of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, will deploy the Nigeria Maternal Health Multiplier, an integrated digital health initiative combining artificial intelligence, mobile connectivity, affordable devices and data access to support pregnant women, frontline health workers and primary healthcare facilities.
Under the initiative, the partners aim to provide 500,000 women with access to trusted health guidance, equip 5,000 frontline health workers with tools to identify pregnancy and childbirth complications earlier, and support 500 health facilities with technology and connectivity to improve the consistency and quality of maternal healthcare by 2030.
The investment, which will run from 2026 to 2030, comprises direct and in-kind contributions from MTN and the Gates Foundation. The organisations said the initial funding is intended to attract additional support and create a model that could eventually be expanded to other markets.
The initiative will use AI-enabled, phone-based decision support tools to provide health information to mothers and assist frontline health workers with real-time guidance. It will also provide affordable smartphones and mobile data to pregnant women while improving connectivity at primary healthcare facilities.
The partners said the approach is intended to address some of the barriers that limit access to maternal healthcare, particularly in underserved communities where the availability of information, connectivity and healthcare resources can affect the quality and timeliness of care.
Nigeria has been selected as the first market for the Maternal Health Multiplier amid its continued maternal health challenges. The organisations said Nigeria accounts for nearly 30 percent of maternal deaths globally, while only 59 percent of women complete four or more antenatal care visits.
Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare, said the initiative would complement existing government efforts to improve maternal healthcare.
The programme will build on Nigeria’s Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative (MAMII), being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare under the Sector-Wide Approach.
The technology component will include connected devices that allow healthcare workers to access guidance in real time and potentially identify warning signs earlier. For pregnant women, affordable phone and data access will be used to reduce the cost barrier to accessing digital health services.
The initiative will also focus on improving connectivity at primary healthcare facilities, with the partners arguing that access to digital health services should not depend on a woman’s location.
Bosun Tijani, minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, said the partnership demonstrated how digital technologies could be applied to strengthen public services.
“For too long, the biggest barrier to improving service delivery in Nigeria, whether in health, agriculture, or education, has not been a lack of innovations, but a lack of focus on the foundational systems necessary to drive adoption,” Tijani said.
Ralph Mupita, MTN Group president and chief executive officer, said the initiative would seek to put locally relevant health information into the hands of mothers and healthcare professionals through digital technologies and AI.
Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, said the partnership was intended to ensure that the benefits of AI reach communities that may otherwise have limited access to emerging technologies.
The partnership brings together MTN’s connectivity infrastructure, device distribution and digital inclusion capabilities with the Gates Foundation’s experience in maternal and newborn health, digital health, responsible AI and scaling health interventions.
