President Goodluck Jonathan has said that Nigeria is set to meet some of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
He said the goal on reduction of child mortality in particular would be achieved, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.
In an address delivered at the UN high-level summit on MDGs on Monday in New York, United States, Jonathan said the country still faced significant challenges in the area of environment, global partnership for development and maternal mortality.
NAN reports that the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, delivered the President’s address.
Jonathan said in spite of the strong determination by the country to implement the eight MDGs created in 2000, progress to date had been mixed.
“Nigeria is reasonably on course to achieve the target of MDGs on reducing child mortality, with a fall from 100 per 1,000 live births between 2003 and 2008.
“However, the issue of maternal health has been most intractable and challenging, given that for most of the early years of the MDGs, Nigeria had one of the biggest maternal mortality ratios in the world, hovering at 800 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births,” he said.
Jonathan said recent data from the country suggested that investments had recorded appreciable progress, with a drop in the maternal mortality ratio of 545 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
Source: http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201009224484832
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