A $5 million plan to cut maternal deaths in Nigeria by 60%

Professor Ibraheem O. Awowole of Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife has secured a $5 million Gates Foundation grant for PRIME, a three-year maternal-health program rolling out across seven Nigerian states — Lagos, Ogun, Ekiti, Kano, Kaduna, Gombe, and Jigawa — with Jhpiego and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. The program focuses on catching life-threatening pregnancy complications like pre-eclampsia early, with the explicit aim of cutting maternal deaths in the program by 60 percent.