Every single day in Nigeria, 145 women die from pregnancy-related complications, a devastating toll that places the country second globally , just behind South Sudan, according to the World Health Organization’s 2023 report. These deaths embody a healthcare crises where maternal conditions contribute to 22.5% of all mortality rates among women of reproductive age.
The tragic reality exists alongside a booming digital health sector where Nigeria is forecasted to have around 140 million smartphone users by 2025, representing 60-66% population penetration. This digital expansion coincides with a burgeoning health technology sector that promises revolutionary solutions: AI-powered diagnostic tools, telemedicine platforms connecting rural patients to urban specialists, and real-time monitoring systems that could predict and prevent maternal complications.
This stark contradiction reveals a painful truth: while digital health innovation is advancing rapidly, the women who need it most are being systematically left behind. The critical question we must confront is whether technology will become a lifeline for Nigeria’s mothers or yet another factor widening the healthcare gap between rich and poor.
The Digital Health Promise: Innovation Meets Reality
The potential of digital health in Nigeria extends beyond the flashy apps and AI chatbots that dominate media coverage. The revolution encompasses telemedicine services enabling remote specialist consultations, wearable devices monitoring high-risk pregnancies in real-time, and sophisticated data systems that can identify maternal death hotspots before more lives are lost. We are seeing AI systems that can potentially predict preeclampsia risk before clinical symptoms appear, and mobile platforms that connect community midwives to specialist obstetricians in real-time.
However, the brutal reality on the ground tells a different story. While affluent women in Lagos book same-day specialist appointments through smartphone apps, a pregnant woman in rural Katsina might need to walk miles to reach a clinic that lacks electricity, internet connectivity, and even basic medical supplies.
How digital health tools may exclude the most vulnerable
The uncomfortable truth about Nigeria’s digital health revolution is that without deliberate intervention, these technologies risk exacerbating existing healthcare inequalities rather than alleviating them. What experts now term the “digital determinants of health” have become as crucial to survival as traditional factors like nutrition and sanitation. In practical terms, this means that a woman’s chances of surviving childbirth may depend on whether she has internet access, can afford a smartphone, or possesses the digital literacy to navigate health applications.
The reality paints a grim picture showing how only a few of rural Nigerians have reliable internetand a basic smartphone costs more than the salary for a typical rural farmworker, and UNESCO’s 2022 data shows that 68% of women in Nigeria’s poorest states lack the skills to effectively use health apps. These barriers create an insurmountable digital divide that literally determines who lives and who dies.
Compounding this problem is the profit-driven nature of most digital health solutions. MostNigerian health apps require high-speed internet, rendering them useless in villages where only 2G networks are available. Similarly, most AI-powered diagnostic tools are primarily trained on data from urban hospitals, making them dangerously unreliable for addressing rural health realities. The consequences of these design flaws are deadly: a pregnant woman in Makoko’s floating slums might miss critical alerts about her rising blood pressure because her less than NGN 15,000 phone cannot run the necessary app, while her wealthy counterpart in Abuja receives sophisticated AI-driven prenatal care. This isn’t just inequality, it’s a form of systemic exclusion with fatal consequences.
Nigeria’s digital maternal health strategy is building momentum
Nigeria’s digital maternal health strategy is gaining traction through foundational policies like the Federal Digital Health Strategy (2021) and the Nigeria Digital Health Initiative (NDHI), which have connected over 720 health facilities to electronic records systems However, the WHO’s 2023 report reveals a critical gap: only 30% of providers actively use these tools, and even less in in rural areas, undermining their potential to prevent maternal deaths. Despite this, initiatives like the Maternal and Perinatal Child Death Surveillance and Response (MPCDSR) demonstrate progress by enabling real-time mortality tracking a crucial step toward targeted interventions, even if systemic delays persist.
Efforts to improve internet access, like the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), are helping move things forward, but progress has been slow due to lack of funding and poor management. While many health centers still don’t have reliable internet, the fact that these programs exist shows the government is trying to make a change.
The big problem? We can now see where mothers are dying thanks to better data, but many still can’t get the care they need in time. This gap shows both the potential of Nigeria’s digital health plans and the urgent need to fix delivery problems to save more lives.
The MAMII Model: Targeted Intervention in High-Risk Areas
Among Nigeria’s most ambitious efforts is the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiatives (MAMII), targeting 172 high-risk local government areas, that acount for 55% of maternal deaths. MAMII adopts a dual supply- and demand-side approach: on the supply side, it upgrades health facilities, trains midwives, and deploys digital tools like the Maternal and Perinatal Child Death Surveillance and Response (MPCDSR) system for real-time mortality tracking. Simultaneously, its digital “Enabler” pillar integrates dashboards and SMS alerts to streamline emergency referrals, ensuring timely interventions. On the demand side, it focuses on community education, maternal health literacy, and removing financial barriers through health insurance schemes.
Inclusive design principles for digital innovators
To bridge Nigeria’s digital maternal health gap, interventions must be grounded in inclusivity and practicality. This means prioritizing “low-tech by design” solutions that function offline and on basic phones, integrating local languages and voice-based interfaces to overcome literacy barriers, and expanding affordable device access through subsidies or public–private partnerships.
Equally critical are ecosystem partnerships that subsidize device access, strengthen community health worker networks, and enable real-time data aggregation. Strengthening rural network infrastructure, especially through targeted investments from the Universal Service Provision Fund, should go hand-in-hand with training community health workers to use and maintain digital tools effectively.
Scaling impact requires shifting from pilot thinking to enterprise execution. Policymakers can accelerate progress by mandating usability testing in rural contexts, ensuring maternal health apps meet minimum connectivity requirements, and linking funding to measurable equity outcomes. When combined, these steps can transform digital health from a privilege for the few into a lifeline for every mother, regardless of geography or income.