Rotary International has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the bill on “Compliance with reporting and review of maternal deaths”.
National Coordinator of Rotary Maternal and Child Health (RMCH) Project in Nigeria, Prof. Emmanuel Lufadeju said at a media conference that Rotary has approved $2 million to improve access to quality healthcare and family planning, eventually reducing maternal and child mortality in the country by 25 percent in the next three years.
He said: “We introduced a bill in the Senate together with the Federal Ministry of Health on compliance with reporting and review of maternal deaths resulting from complications. The bill has been endorsed by the Senate but still awaiting the President’s assent.
“As soon as the bill is signed, of course, maternal death surveillance response in Nigeria has become a law. One of our responsibilities will be to advocate compliance in all the 36 states and FCT.
On the $2 million funding, Lufadeju said: “The programme which was submitted to Rotary Foundation has been approved for our district. Of many districts that applied, we came No.1. And this approval indicates that all lessons learnt from the previous three years have been concretised in a small location, including Abuja, Ekiti, Nasarawa, Gombe States. We have selected two local governments in each of these states and seven facilities in each local government”.
