Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Pate, has revealed that about 850,000 Nigerian children under the age of five die every year from preventable causes such as pneumonia and complications from premature births.
Pate disclosed this in Abuja on Wednesday during the joint commemoration of the 2025 World Pneumonia Day and World Prematurity Day, which also featured the launch of two key policy documents — the Nigerian Child Survival Action Plan and the National Birth Defect Surveillance Guideline.
According to him, although Nigeria has made progress in reducing under-five deaths, the country remains off track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target of cutting child mortality to less than 25 deaths per 1,000 live births by 2030.
Citing data from the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), Pate said the under-five mortality rate dropped from 201 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 110 per 1,000 in 2023, a 45 percent decline in two decades.
Despite this progress, about 280,000 newborns die within their first 28 days of life, mostly due to premature birth complications, while 162,000 deaths are caused by pneumonia annually.
Describing pneumonia as the “forgotten killer of under-fives,” Pate lamented that diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV receive far more global attention and funding despite pneumonia’s devastating toll on child survival.
He said the new policy frameworks aim to strengthen healthcare delivery, promote early detection of birth defects, and align Nigeria’s child health goals with global initiatives like the Every Newborn Action Plan (ENAP).
The minister reaffirmed commitment to expanding primary healthcare services, improving oxygen therapy and neonatal care, and ensuring that no Nigerian child dies from preventable causes.
Follow the Parallel Facts channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaCQSAoHgZWiDjR3Kn2E
