Insurance coverage has been extended to 868 pregnant women across Enugu State as Mrs. Nkechinyere Mbah expands the MamaCare Initiative through Custos Care Foundation.
The Wife of the Enugu State Governor, Mrs. Nkechinyere Mbah, through her Custos Care Foundation (CCF), has enrolled 868 pregnant women drawn from the 17 local government areas of the state in the Enugu State health insurance scheme.
The beneficiaries were enrolled under the expanded MamaCare Health Insurance Onboarding Programme, themed “A Healthy Life Begins in the Womb,” at an event held on Saturday at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Enugu.
The foundation also distributed 868 bags of 10kg rice to the beneficiaries as part of the intervention.
Speaking at the event, Mrs. Mbah said the programme was designed to ensure that vulnerable pregnant women could access quality healthcare before, during and after childbirth without being prevented by financial constraints.
She said the expanded MamaCare Initiative was focused on protecting mothers, children and families, stressing that healthy children were more likely to have a healthy beginning when their mothers received adequate care during pregnancy.
The initiative builds on the MamaCare programme launched in 2024, when 1,701 pregnant women were enrolled in a one-year health insurance programme. Contemporary reports from the launch confirmed that the scheme was designed to provide beneficiaries with access to antenatal care, safe delivery and postnatal services.
Mrs. Mbah said the experience from the earlier phase had strengthened the foundation’s resolve to expand the programme and reach more vulnerable women across Enugu State.
According to her, the expanded initiative is anchored on four pillars: access to healthcare services; maternal nutrition and wellness; safe pregnancy and delivery; and postnatal and early-child support.
She said the health insurance component would help remove financial barriers that could discourage vulnerable women from seeking timely medical attention.
“Health insurance is therefore not simply about providing a card. It is about providing access, it is about providing protection, and sometimes it is about saving a life,” she said.
On maternal nutrition, Mbah said the programme would promote nutrition education, healthy living and food outreach programmes, noting that the wellbeing of a mother during pregnancy could directly affect the health of her child.
She urged pregnant women to attend antenatal appointments regularly, pay attention to warning signs and seek medical attention from accredited healthcare facilities whenever necessary.
The governor’s wife also disclosed plans to launch “Hope After Grief,” a support programme for women dealing with grief, trauma and emotional challenges during pregnancy, childbirth or the postnatal period.
She said the foundation planned to reach at least 1,000 additional mothers in rural and semi-urban communities across Enugu State in 2026.
Mbah called for greater collaboration among government agencies, healthcare professionals, families, traditional and community leaders, civil society organisations and other stakeholders to promote safe motherhood.
The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Enugu State Agency for Universal Health Coverage, Mrs. Edith Okolo, said the agency was collaborating with the Custos Care Foundation to implement the MamaCare Initiative.
Okolo explained that Mrs. Mbah was funding one year of health insurance coverage for the 868 beneficiaries, while the agency would register them and facilitate access to accredited healthcare providers.
“Today, we are registering them for free health insurance and issuing them cards. Then they will be able to go to any of our accredited healthcare providers to receive health services,” she said.
She said the accredited providers included public, private and mission hospitals across the state.
Under the programme, beneficiaries would have access to antenatal care, delivery services and healthcare for their newborn babies.
Okolo added that beneficiaries would also have access to a mechanism for reporting difficulties encountered while seeking care.
She said beneficiaries would be encouraged to renew their coverage after the sponsored 12-month period, adding that the annual premium was N12,000.
The Managing Director of Custos Care Foundation, Mrs. Blessing Egodi Igwe, said the foundation had enrolled 1,801 women under the MamaCare Initiative in 2024 and was enrolling another 868 women in the latest phase.
Igwe said the foundation had invested more than N20 million in health insurance coverage for pregnant women and would implement the programme in phases, with plans to increase the number of beneficiaries in subsequent phases.
The latest expansion is consistent with the foundation’s broader focus on maternal and child healthcare. In March 2026, CCF, under its Expanded Mama Care Initiative, organised a large-scale medical outreach for women and girls in Enugu, providing screenings, consultations, medication and other healthcare services.
One of the beneficiaries, Mrs. Chigozie Chukwu, described the intervention as “beautiful and fantastic,” saying the health insurance coverage would help reduce the financial burden associated with childbirth.
She expressed gratitude to Mrs. Mbah for what she described as her support for women and children across Enugu State.
The expanded programme represents another phase of the Custos Care Foundation’s efforts to improve access to maternal healthcare, building on its stated objective of reducing barriers to healthcare for vulnerable mothers and children in the state.
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