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Tinubu’s aide urges states to adopt, fund health innovations to curb maternal deaths
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From Scholastica Hir, Makurdi
The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Public Health in the Office of the Vice-President, Uju-Rochas Anwukah, has called on state governments to prioritise health research by adopting and funding locally developed innovations capable of reducing maternal and newborn mortality.
Anwukah made the call on Friday at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Grand Challenges Nigeria Annual Meeting and Innovation Exchange, where stakeholders reviewed locally driven healthcare innovations and explored strategies for scaling up successful interventions.
She warned that research findings would amount to little if they remained on paper without translating into practical interventions that improve healthcare delivery and save lives, particularly those of women and newborn children.
The presidential aide, who is also the Board Chair of Grand Challenges Nigeria, urged federal and state governments to demonstrate stronger commitment to research by providing the institutional support, funding and policy framework required to sustain successful innovations beyond their pilot stages.
She said: “Too many promising ideas end up as reports on a shelf, while the families they were meant to help never feel the difference. This meeting is about closing that gap.”
Anwukah disclosed that 10 Nigerian-led projects had received seed funding of up to N60 million each from Grand Challenges Nigeria since inception, while eight beneficiaries participated in the meeting to showcase their innovations and engage with potential implementation partners.
She recalled that Vice-President Kashim Shettima launched the initiative at the State House two years ago, making Nigeria the seventh African country to join the Grand Challenges network.
According to her, investment in healthcare must begin with mothers and newborn children, stressing that a healthy start remained fundamental to human capital development and national productivity.
“That investment has to begin with the mother and the newborn because a healthy start is the foundation of every productive life,” she said.
She, however, cautioned that healthcare interventions that collapsed immediately after the expiration of donor grants should not be regarded as successful.
“A pilot that ends when the grant ends is not a success at all. It is a missed opportunity,” Anwukah said.
She identified credible evidence, institutional ownership, adequately equipped frontline health workers and sustainable financing as critical requirements for scaling up promising healthcare innovations.
The presidential aide urged federal and state governments, alongside development partners, to make concrete commitments on the innovations they intended to adopt, specifying implementation timelines and the officials responsible for delivering them.
“When we gather again next year, the question will not be what we discussed but what we delivered together,” she added.
Also speaking, the Senior Programme Officer, Nutrition, at the Gates Foundation, Alem Abay, described maternal and child health as critical areas requiring urgent intervention.
Abay noted that Nigeria continued to record high maternal and child mortality despite improvements in some child health indicators, urging the country to intensify efforts towards meeting its commitments under the World Health Assembly targets and the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Also, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, called for stronger collaboration among researchers, regulatory agencies, state governments and private-sector organisations to ensure that research outcomes translated into practical solutions.
Muhammad said research initiatives must move beyond pilot stages through institutional backing, sustainable financing and clearly defined implementation strategies.
He emphasised the importance of involving potential users and implementing institutions from the earliest stages of research development, rather than waiting until pilot projects had been completed before seeking adoption.
In his remarks, the Director-General of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum Secretariat, Dr Abdulateef Shittu, acknowledged the challenges confronting state governments in maternal and newborn healthcare, primary healthcare delivery and sustainable health financing.
Shittu, who was represented by the Head of Health Team, Dr Chinekwu Oreh, said innovations must be designed around the practical realities of Nigeria’s healthcare system to achieve meaningful impact.
He said: “The question before us is therefore not simply what innovations exist, but which ones work, under what conditions, and how we can make them available to more Nigerians.”
Shittu urged stakeholders to identify institutions capable of adopting promising innovations and establish realistic timelines for implementation, adding: “The true value of innovation lies not in the novelty of an idea, but in its capacity to improve lives.”
Earlier, the Programme Director of Grand Challenges Nigeria, Godwin Bamsa, said the initiative was established to mobilise funding for locally developed innovations addressing Nigeria’s health and development challenges.
He explained that the programme was focused on identifying local healthcare needs, supporting Nigerian researchers and connecting innovators with institutions capable of adopting their solutions.
The President of the Nutrition Society of Nigeria, Professor Salisu Abubakar, also called for stronger partnerships among researchers, government institutions and development partners.
Abubakar recalled that Grand Challenges Nigeria was launched in November 2024 with support from the Gates Foundation and the Office of the Vice-President to promote and fund locally driven innovations.
He urged the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology to demonstrate concrete commitments towards funding and implementing promising research outcomes.
Meanwhile, the Associate Partner at Dalberg, Ms Chimdi Owundiegwu, challenged Nigerian innovators to strengthen partnerships with relevant institutions to bridge the gap between research and implementation.
She observed that many promising innovations remained unused because of weak connections between research organisations and the institutions responsible for deploying their findings.
Owundiegwu also identified the proposed National Research Institute as a potential mechanism for addressing fragmentation in research funding and coordination.
She, however, stressed that the proposed institution must maintain effective partnerships with public- and private-sector organisations to ensure that research outcomes translated into measurable improvements in maternal and child healthcare.
