How Tech-Enabled Emergency Financing Is Helping Nigerian Families Access Care

In an effort to address maternal mortality rates and overall maternal health conditions, groups of midwives are hosting community dialogue sessions that serve as educational opportunities for preventing danger. Maternal and infant mortality rates have already begun to decrease, and midwives also provide support beyond education, giving mothers food and other supplies as needed.

Enugu State is addressing healthcare access gaps and high maternal mortality by establishing 260 Type 2 Primary Healthcare Centers, with 100 already completed. These fully-equipped facilities provide 24-hour care with essential medications and reliable utilities. As part of the initiative, the Centers are also recruiting 2,200 healthcare workers, training over 1,800 staff members in safe delivery and contraceptive methods, introducing AI-assisted ultrasound screening and implementing affordable health insurance. Since opening in March 2025, one center alone has served over 690 people.

The Grassroots Smile Initiative provides complimentary cleft lip surgeries and associated care, including nutritional support, speech therapy and other treatments. Since 2005, the group has performed over 3,000 free surgeries, averaging about 150 to 200 patients each year.

RestoringVision addresses the global shortage of reading glasses by tackling supply and demand challenges. On the demand side, they partner with local NGOs and governments to provide vision screenings and free initial glasses, particularly for those in regions who either don’t know reading glasses are an option or don’t realize they’re losing their vision. On the supply side, they work to build retail networks and educate employers about productivity benefits, as workers receiving glasses show productivity increases up to 32%.

The Care Now Clinic, established by Behavioral Healthcare Partners of Central Ohio, offers early crisis intervention services for those ages 12 and up, helping bridge the care gap between emergency rooms and waiting to see a physician. The group also recently launched a mobile crisis unit to even further expand access to care. Research shows these models cost less, reduce emergency room visits and make handling chronic conditions more manageable.

A pair of doctors are working to make healthcare more accessible and affordable by training area hospitals to use new technology, like ultrasound devices, to detect non-communicable diseases. Through their newly established non-communicable disease clinic staffed with personnel trained to provide more precise medical care, about 1,100 patients have been cared for.

Max Dental is a group of volunteer dentists offering free dental care to people in low-income communities. Max Dental offers care at subsidized rates and focuses on early diagnosis of dental diseases — as most are cheaper to treat when detected early on. Since 2018, the group has cared for over 18,000 patients across more than 10 low-income communities.

The Health and Social Development Foundation (HESED) aims to increase access to healthcare, specifically among pregnant women and children. HESED works to bring doctors closer to communities that struggle to get care and has also created designated spaces for important care that was previously inaccessible, like OBGYN checkups. Over the last three years, more than 400 people have received checkups from the center, regardless of their insurance status.

The Maternal and Neonatal Emergency Transport Scheme helps to increase access to healthcare services for women and newborns in rural areas through its informal transport/ambulance service. There are currently 2,500 registered drivers with the program willing to transport those in need of care and they serve about 70-90 women in labor each month.

The Wassa mobile clinic provides community members with access to healthcare services like childbirth, vaccinations, family planning, and treatment for diseases like malaria and measles. The mobile clinic services are affordable and easy for the community to access, eliminating the need to travel far for care.