MTN and Gates Foundation put $25m into AI maternal health drive in Nigeria

MTN Group Foundation and the Gates Foundation will spend about US$25 million over four years on an AI-enabled maternal health platform in Nigeria, targeting 500,000 women, 5,000 frontline health workers and 500 health facilities by 2030.

The two organisations announced the Nigeria Maternal Health Multiplier on Wednesday, describing it as the first initiative of its kind in the country. The four-year partnership was announced at Semafor’s Next 3 Billion event, held alongside the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The money covers 2026 to 2030 and includes direct and in-kind contributions from both the Gates Foundation and MTN. The anchor investment is intended to draw in additional funding and support expansion into other markets over time, according to the announcement.

The platform is built around three components. Frontline health workers get connected devices with real-time, AI-enabled decision support to help them identify complications from pregnancy and childbirth early. Pregnant women get affordable smartphones and mobile data so the cost of airtime does not block them from using the digital health tools. Primary health care facilities get improved connectivity, so the quality of care does not depend on where a woman lives.

MTN Group president and CEO Ralph Mupita said the intention is to put trusted health information into the hands of mothers and health workers in their own languages. “Starting in Nigeria, our ambition is to demonstrate a scalable model for improving maternal and child health outcomes across Africa,” he said.

Nigeria was chosen as the first market because of the scale of the problem. The announcement states that Nigeria accounts for nearly 30% of all maternal deaths worldwide, and that only 59% of women complete four or more antenatal care visits, meaning warning signs are often missed. It also states that maternal deaths in sub-Saharan Africa are roughly 250 times higher than in Western Europe, and that global progress on maternal survival, which cut deaths by 40% since 2000, has stalled.

The initiative is designed to work with Nigeria’s existing health reforms rather than alongside them. It builds on the Maternal and Neonatal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative, known as MAMII, which is being deployed by Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health under its Sector-Wide Approach.

Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare, Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, said partnerships that work with existing health systems are what is needed to reach mothers who are still falling through the cracks. The country’s minister of communications, innovation and digital economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, said the barrier in Nigeria has not been a lack of innovations but a lack of focus on the foundational systems needed to drive adoption.

Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman said AI’s benefits tend to reach those who can already afford them if the market is left to work alone, and that philanthropy’s role is as a catalyst for investment rather than a substitute for it.

MTN brings its connectivity infrastructure, digital inclusion work, mobile financial services, device distribution networks and local market reach to the partnership. The Gates Foundation brings its work in maternal, newborn and child health, digital health innovation, responsible AI and evidence-based scale-up.

The announcement does not state how the platform will be regulated, how patient data will be governed, or which Nigerian partners will operate the facilities component. It also does not name the other markets under consideration for expansion.

Source: MTN Group, MTN Group Foundation and Gates Foundation launch first-of-its-kind Maternal Health Multiplier platform to expand access to AI-enabled maternal health care in Nigeria