Nigeria loses an estimated 442,000 children annually to prematurity and pneumonia, according to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate.
Speaking on Wednesday in Abuja during an event marking the 2025 World Pneumonia and Prematurity Day, Prof. Pate disclosed that about 280,000 newborns die within the first 28 days of life due to complications arising from premature births, while 162,000 children under five succumb to pneumonia each year.
The minister, represented by the Director of Health Promotion, Mr. John Urakpa, also launched the Nigerian Child Survival Action Plan and the National Birth Defect Surveillance Guideline, aimed at improving child health outcomes across the country.
He said data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) revealed that the nation’s under-five mortality rate had declined from 201 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 110 in 2023 which is 45 per cent reduction.
However, he warned that Nigeria remains off track to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of reducing under-five deaths to fewer than 25 per 1,000 live births by 2030.
“Despite progress, approximately 850,000 preventable newborn and under-five deaths still occur annually in Nigeria,” Pate said, stressing that the deaths from prematurity and pneumonia “place a moral burden on the Nigerian health system.”
The minister noted that while global attention has focused on diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV, childhood pneumonia often called the ‘forgotten killer’ has received inadequate attention despite being a leading infectious cause of death among children.
He said Nigeria, alongside 14 other countries; mostly in sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly three-quarters of global childhood pneumonia deaths.
The Child Survival Action Plan, he added, adopts a multi-sectoral approach integrating health, education, nutrition, and child protection to accelerate progress toward achieving the SDG targets.
Also speaking, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mrs. Daju Kachollom, represented by Dr. Amina Mohammed, said the government is strengthening primary healthcare delivery, scaling up interventions such as Kangaroo Mother Care, early breastfeeding, and oxygen therapy, while enhancing data-driven decision-making to guide equitable resource allocation.
On his part, Dr. Martin Dohlsten, UNICEF Nigeria’s Health Manager for Maternal, Newborn, Child, Adolescent Health and HIV, emphasized the need for sustained collaboration to tackle pneumonia and prematurity, noting that both remain major contributors to child mortality in Nigeria.
“These challenges demand coordinated action and sustained advocacy to ensure every Nigerian child not only survives but thrives,” Dohlsten said.
World Prematurity Day, marked every November 17, raises awareness on preterm birth and its impacts, while World Pneumonia Day, observed on November 12, seeks to mobilize global action against pneumonia.
