MTN Group Foundation (MTN) and the Gates Foundation say they are committing $25 million to reducing maternal mortality in Nigeria through 2030.

The partnership, which both organisations call the “first-of-its-kind Maternal Health Multiplier platform”, is built to “expand access to AI-enabled maternal health care in Nigeria” by providing affordable smartphones and data access to pregnant Nigerian women.

According to the Foundations, the initiative aims to “help 500,000 women access trusted health guidance, equip 5,000 frontline health workers with tools to identify complications from pregnancy and childbirth early, and enable 500 health facilities to deliver more consistent, higher-quality maternal health care”.

The platform is planned to expand equitable access to high-quality maternal health care through AI-enabled, phone-based decision support tools for both frontline health workers and mothers.

It complements existing care with affordable smartphones and mobile data, and improved connectivity at health care facilities.

Existing data show that maternal survival has improved, cutting deaths by 40% since 2000, but progress is stalling, with women in sub-Saharan Africa at risk roughly 250 times higher than in Western Europe.

Today, despite Nigeria’s progress, the country still accounts for nearly 30% of all maternal deaths worldwide.

“For too long, the biggest barrier to improving service delivery in Nigeria, whether in health, agriculture, or education, has not been a lack of innovations, but a lack of focus on the foundational systems necessary to drive adoption,” said Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s minister of communications, innovation, and digital economy.

“Partnerships like this reflect the kind of collaboration we want to see more of in Nigeria—one that puts the country’s digital transformation to work for the people who need it most.”

Speaking to this partnership, Muhammad Ali Pate, Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare, said “strengthening primary healthcare and empowering the frontline health workers who deliver it are core to our health sector reforms”.

“Partnerships that work with our existing health systems, rather than around them, are exactly what’s needed to reach mothers who are still falling through the cracks. We welcome this collaboration and look forward to it strengthening the work already underway.”

The four-year partnership was announced at Semafor’s Next 3 Billion event, on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

“The future of maternal health depends on ensuring that every mother, regardless of where she lives, can access the support she needs to make informed decisions throughout her journey. Technology is creating unprecedented opportunities to make healthcare more personalised, predictive and accessible,” said Ralph Mupita, MTN Group president and CEO.

“As artificial intelligence evolves, we can put trusted, locally relevant health insights directly into the hands of mothers and healthcare professionals, tailored to their unique needs and languages. Starting in Nigeria, our ambition is to demonstrate a scalable model for improving maternal and child health outcomes across Africa.”

Mark Suzman, CEO of the Gates Foundation, also said: “AI has enormous potential to improve health, but only if its benefits reach the people who stand to gain the most”.

“Left to the market alone, potential tends to benefit those who can already afford it, not the people who need it most. That’s where philanthropy has a role to play: not as a substitute for investment, but as a catalyst for it. Programs like the Maternal Health Multiplier are creating AI tools for and putting them into the hands of Nigerian mothers and frontline health workers, helping keep moms and their babies healthy.”

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