Onyinye Oranezi and Zubaida Baba Ibrahim (Lead Writers)
As you are reading this, Amina is in a remote village in Borno State, giving birth to her second child on a bare mat in a makeshift shelter. There is no nurse or access to clean water, no sterile equipment or electricity. Her baby might survive, but her chances are slim.
Unfortunately, Amina’s situation reflects a broader issue affecting many Nigerian women, who face significant challenges in accessing quality healthcare during pregnancy, childbirth, and beyond.
While women dominate the healthcare field globally as professionals, they also frequently encounter barriers and biases in accessing quality healthcare for themselves.
The 2025 Gender in Nigeria report revealed that 71.2% of married women lacked autonomy in making sexual and reproductive health decisions, limiting their ability to make informed choices about their bodies and futures.
As the world commemorates, the International Day of Action for Women’s Health, themed, In Solidarity We Resist: Our Fight, Our Right, the global community is raising its voice with women like Amina and other marginalised women, drawing attention to the growing gaps in access to essential health services and the urgent need to protect and promote women’s health and rights in Nigeria.
An all-rounder on women’s health in Nigeria
Nigeria accounts for more than 28.3% of global maternal deaths, with 1,047 deaths per 100,000 live births, which is among the highest in the world. These deaths are preventable and mostly occur due to a lack of access, socio-cultural reasons and a general lack of the government’s financial commitment to prevent certain causes of maternal deaths.
In 2025, Nigeria’s government drastically reduced its family planning budget by 97%, allocating only ₦66.39 million compared to ₦2.2 billion in 2024. This cutback comes at a time the U.S has withdrawn funding to UNFPA, which has been vital in providing reproductive health supplies, training, and technical support.
Socioeconomic factors also play a crucial role in the decline of women’s health, compounding the issue beyond just political factors. In a survey published on BMC Women’s Health, titled “Barriers to health in women of reproductive age living with or at risk of non‑communicable diseases in Nigeria,” women surveyed emphasised that family and home responsibilities significantly impacted their ability to manage their health. They noted having to do the heavy domestic work placed on them despite their external work commitments.
Some of the women surveyed also reported challenges in maintaining a good, nutritious diet, often relying on street food and carbohydrate-rich meals like rice, Eba, and yams. They also tend to prioritise their children’s nutrition, reserving better food for them and settling for less nutritious options themselves.
The study’s participants were women from diverse professions, including entrepreneurs, traders, food sellers, and office workers in Lagos and Abuja. However, most lacked health insurance, making out-of-pocket healthcare expenses a challenge.
Most of the women also prioritised basic needs over healthcare, leading to inadequate management of chronic conditions. They reported that they couldn’t afford bulk medication purchases, instead buying “one sachet at a time,” which exacerbated health issues like hypertension. They also saw hospital visits as costly and time-consuming due to long waiting times, prompting many to self-medicate at local pharmacies instead.
A shrinking space for choice and voice
A recent UN Women survey of 411 women-led and women’s rights organisations across 44 crisis settings revealed alarming financial challenges for women’s development programmes, including health.
About 90% of the organisation’s reported financial difficulties, with 47% potentially shutting down in the next six months if funding doesn’t improve.
72% of women-led organisations have already been forced to lay off staff, and 51% have suspended essential programming. Healthcare programmes have been hit particularly hard, with 52% significantly affected, further exacerbating the women’s health crisis.
Nigeria’s healthcare sector is also witnessing a growing disparity in the number of male doctors compared to female doctors. The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Lagos, Rivers, and Oyo States have the highest percentages of female doctors, while other states, especially in the northern region, fall below the national average.
States with fewer female doctors, tend to have higher maternal mortality rates suggesting that the scarcity of female doctors in these areas contributes to gender biases among medical professionals, potentially impacting women’s healthcare outcomes.
Reframing women’s health as a national priority
To strive for gender equity and uphold women’s rights, Nigeria must treat women’s health as a national emergency. This means increasing investments in family planning and sexual and reproductive rights programmes, eliminating socio-cultural barriers that impede women from accessing care and creating spaces for the needs of women and girls in policymaking.
There is also an urgent need to reform restrictive laws, expand access to safe abortion services, and ensure that every woman, regardless of her income, location, or age, can make informed decisions about her body and her health.