The Rotary International has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the bill on ‘Compliance with reporting and review of maternal deaths’.

The National Coordinator of the Rotary Maternal and Child Health (RMCH) Project in Nigeria, Prof. Emmanuel Lufadeju, spoke at a conference.

Lufadeju said 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 law. One of our responsibilities will be to advocate compliance in all 36 states and FCT.

On the $2 million funding, Lufadeju said: “The program which was submitted to the Rotary Foundation has been approved for our district. Of the many districts that applied, we came No.1. And this approval indicates that all lessons learned from the previous three years have been concretized in a small location, including Abuja, Ekiti, Nasarawa, and Gombe states. We have selected two local governments in each of these states and seven facilities in each local government.”

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