From crisis to celebration: How NHIA’s CEmONC programme saved a mother and her quadruplets

Kelechi Ohiri, Director General and Chief Executive Officer, National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA)

When Hauwa Usman Gambaki, a 35-year-old mother of five from a quiet farming village near Azare, began bleeding heavily late one night, her family feared the worst. With no savings and little access to medical care, her husband’s only option was to embark on a desperate journey to the Federal University of Health Sciences Teaching Hospital, Azare (FUHSTHA).

What followed turned despair into joy: Hauwa not only survived, but she gave birth to quadruplets, two boys and two girls, delivered safely at no cost under the National Health Insurance Authority’s (NHIA) Comprehensive Emergency Maternal, Obstetric and Neonatal Care (CEmONC) programme.

A lifeline in Bauchi

At FUHSTHA, medical staff quickly stabilised Hauwa. She was prepared for surgery, given transfusions and medicines, and eventually delivered through a caesarean section. The family braced for expenses they could not afford, but every cost, from drugs to an amenity ward, was fully covered by NHIA.

For the Gambakis, this was more than healthcare. It was survival. It was dignity. As Kelechi Ohiri, NHIA’s director general, put it: “People paying out of pocket is very scary and not the way to go.”

Renewed Hope in action

The story reflects a broader transformation in Nigeria’s health system. Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, NHIA has been repositioned to expand insurance coverage and reduce the financial burden of care on families.

Muhammad Ali Pate, coordinating minister of health & social welfare, highlighted the progress in a recent statement: “We are now at 20 million Nigerians enrolled in health insurance: this is the first time we have ever gotten to that. A few years ago, it was 16 million. So, we have enrolled 4 million in two years. Many states are all moving in the right direction.”

Shamsuddeen Yahaya, NHIA’s assistant director, described the quadruplet delivery as a “true national success story.”

Hope for the future

For a peasant farming family once staring at tragedy, the CEmONC programme became a bridge to hope. It proved that when public policy is matched with compassion, even the most vulnerable can be protected.

The NHIA says its mission is simple but urgent: no Nigerian should fall into poverty because of healthcare costs. For Hauwa, her husband, and their four new babies, that mission has already changed their lives forever.