The National Bureau of Statistics (NBC) yesterday said the National Health Facility Survey (NHFS) 2025 had shown that 81.6 per cent of public health facilities provided antenatal care services nationwide, improving from 79.7 per cent recorded in 2023 across the country.

The survey, released by NBC in Abuja, said in spite of improvements in antenatal care services, persistent gaps remained in critical maternal, newborn and child health interventions nationwide.

The report said secondary health facilities recorded higher availability of antenatal care services at 92.6 per cent, compared to 81.1 per cent in primary health facilities across the country.

According to the survey, coverage of key antenatal interventions remained high, with 92.2 per cent providing folic acid, 88.9 per cent offering intermittent preventive treatment, and 94.0 per cent administering tetanus toxoid immunisation.

However, only 30.9 per cent of facilities provided antiretroviral services as part of antenatal care, while 84.2 per cent offered HIV testing services to pregnant women nationwide. The report also showed that family planning counselling during antenatal care was widely available, with 91.9 per cent of health facilities offering the service across the country.

It, however, revealed low availability of family planning commodities, with 19.4 per cent of facilities having pills, 21.1 per cent injectables, 20.2 per cent male condoms, and 21.5 per cent implants.

In immunisation services, the survey found moderate availability of vaccines, with coverage hovering around 50 per cent across most antigens in public health facilities nationwide overall.

“These include measles vaccine at 52.7 per cent, pentavalent at 51.8 per cent, oral polio at 52.4 per cent, BCG at 51.7 per cent, and yellow fever at 51.8 per cent.” “Rotavirus was 48.5 per cent, pneumococcal 49.4 per cent, inactivated polio 51.7 per cent, human papillomavirus 49.0 per cent, and meningitis vaccine at 50.5 per cent.”

On elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, the report revealed that knowledge of protocols among clinical staff declined to 68.6 per cent in 2025 from 76.3 per cent in 2023 nationwide. It added that while 95.5 per cent of health workers identified the need to test pregnant women for HIV, knowledge gaps persisted in partner testing at 55.9 per cent.