Despite modest progress in child survival, Nigeria continues to lose about 850,000 newborns and under-five children to preventable causes every year, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, has said.
Pate, who spoke on Wednesday in Abuja at the commemoration of the 2025 World Pneumonia and Prematurity Days, described the figure as “a heavy national burden” that calls for urgent, sustained interventions.
Represented by the Director of Health Promotion, John Urakpa, the minister said Nigeria had achieved a 45 per cent reduction in under-five mortality over the past two decades, but the rate remains far above the global target.
“Data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) show that under-five mortality has declined from 201 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 110 in 2023.
In spite of this progress, about 850,000 preventable newborn and under-five deaths occur each year,” Pate said.
He warned that the country was still off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of reducing under-five deaths to fewer than 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030.
The minister revealed that pneumonia remains one of the deadliest yet neglected killers of children, responsible for 162,000 deaths annually in Nigeria.
“About 100 million cases of childhood pneumonia occur globally each year, causing over 808,000 deaths. Nigeria and 14 other countries account for three-quarters of the global burden,” he said.
“While the world has mobilised strongly against malaria, polio, tuberculosis, and HIV, childhood pneumonia has not received the attention it deserves.”
Pate commended the collaboration between the Ministry of Health, the Every Breath Counts Coalition, and the Paediatric Association of Nigeria, which led to the development of the In-Patient Pneumonia Treatment Algorithm—an initiative that has strengthened the capacity of health workers to manage severe pneumonia.
According to him, the intervention contributed to the reduction of under-five mortality from 132 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2018 to 110 in 2024.
The minister expressed worry that neonatal mortality—deaths within the first 28 days of life—had seen little improvement in over three decades.
“Each year, we lose about 280,000 newborns within the first 28 days of life due to prematurity,” he said, adding that the slow pace of progress “demands renewed national focus and commitment.”
At the event, Pate launched two key national documents—the Nigerian Child Survival Action Plan and the National Birth Defect Surveillance Guideline—to strengthen health interventions and improve child survival outcomes.
He explained that the Child Survival Action Plan was developed through broad stakeholder consultations to provide a roadmap for reducing under-five deaths through investments in health, nutrition, education, and child protection.
The National Birth Defect Surveillance Guideline, he added, is Nigeria’s first standardised framework for data collection and management of birth defects.
“It will establish hospital-based sentinel surveillance across 12 tertiary facilities nationwide to generate reliable data for research, policy, and intervention planning,” the minister noted.
The Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Daju Kachollom, represented by Amina Mohammed, Director of Child Health, said the commemoration provided an opportunity to renew national commitment to ending preventable child deaths.
She stressed the importance of strengthening primary healthcare, expanding access to oxygen therapy and Kangaroo Mother Care, and promoting exclusive breastfeeding as cost-effective ways to improve newborn survival.
Similarly, Martin Dohlsten, UNICEF Nigeria’s Health Manager for Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health, reaffirmed the agency’s commitment to supporting government efforts against pneumonia and prematurity—two of the leading infectious causes of child mortality in the country.
World Pneumonia Day is observed globally on November 12, while World Prematurity Day is marked on November 17 to highlight the challenges of premature births and promote solutions to save young lives.
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