The Kwara State Government has commenced the training of 290 healthcare workers on skilled birth attendance as part of efforts to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality in the state.

The training, organised in collaboration with the Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity programme, is holding in Ilorin from October 19 to November 3, 2026.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Press Secretary of the Kwara State Hospitals Management Board, Adamu Usman Sabi, on Thursday.

The initiative, according to the statement, is designed to strengthen the capacity of healthcare personnel to provide appropriate care during pregnancy, labour, childbirth and newborn care, with particular emphasis on preventing avoidable deaths among mothers and babies.

The Executive Secretary of the Board, Abdulraheem Malik, said the programme aimed at equipping healthcare workers with the skills required to ensure safe deliveries and effectively manage complications during childbirth.

“What we are trying to do with the programme is to train our health workers on skilled birth attendance. Basically, we are trying to drop the rate of maternal mortality and also neonatal mortality in Kwara State,” Malik said.

He explained that the beneficiaries were drawn from healthcare facilities across the three senatorial districts of the state to ensure that the skills acquired during the training could be deployed to improve maternal healthcare services in different communities.

Malik noted that maternal mortality in the state had been on a downward trend, adding that the government was working to further reduce preventable deaths and move closer to the level recommended by the World Health Organisation.

He noted that strengthening the capacity of health workers to manage childbirth and respond promptly to complications was essential to sustaining the progress made in maternal and newborn healthcare.

The executive secretary added that the government planned to make the training an annual exercise to ensure that healthcare workers remained abreast of developments in medical practice and emerging technologies.

“We are hoping to make it an annual training programme. After this one, in 2027, we hope to also retrain workers because health is constantly changing,” he said.

“I am sure there will be new technologies by the time we get to 2027 that we also need to impart the skills to our health workers.”

Malik urged residents, particularly pregnant women, to continue to have confidence in the state’s healthcare system, assuring them that the government was making efforts to improve service delivery.

Also speaking, the Director of Medical Services and Training at the Hospitals Management Board, Femi Joseph, said the programme brought together doctors, nurses, midwives and laboratory personnel to improve their competence in skilled birth attendance.

Joseph explained that the initiative was being implemented across the country under the HOPE project, a Federal Government-led programme through which states receive grants to support interventions aimed at improving human capital development and healthcare outcomes.

He said the training covered the different stages of labour and childbirth, as well as neonatal resuscitation, with practical demonstrations forming a major part of the exercise.

According to him, participants are being given opportunities to practise procedures required in labour wards and during efforts to revive newborn babies experiencing difficulties immediately after birth.

The Director of Nursing Services at the board, Hajia Risikat Oyewole, said continuous training of healthcare workers remained important to the state’s efforts to reduce maternal mortality.

She said although Kwara was not among the states with the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, the government was determined to reduce preventable maternal deaths to the barest minimum.

Oyewole explained that the training was targeted at about 290 healthcare workers, including nurses, doctors and laboratory technicians, to ensure that pregnant women received care from skilled personnel throughout pregnancy, labour and delivery.

One of the resource persons, Dr Olasinde Adeolu, said the training focused on labour and delivery, noting that maternal mortality in the state had continued to decline in recent times.

He said the trend reflected progress in the state’s efforts to improve maternal healthcare and strengthen the capacity of personnel responsible for attending to pregnant women and newborn babies.

A participant, Nurse Florence, an Assistant Chief Nursing Officer, said the programme had provided an opportunity for healthcare workers to refresh and update their knowledge of safe childbirth practices.

She said the training reinforced the appropriate procedures healthcare personnel should follow from pregnancy and antenatal care through labour and delivery.

The programme is expected to strengthen the ability of participating healthcare workers to provide skilled care and respond effectively to emergencies that may arise during childbirth, as the state intensifies efforts to reduce maternal and neonatal deaths.