Keynote address:

Distinguished hosts, esteemed colleagues, ladies and gentlemen,

It is with an unwavering sense of purpose that I rise to address you this evening at the McKinsey Roundtable on Closing the Women’s Health Gap in Africa. I extend my sincere appreciation to the McKinsey Health Institute for convening this essential dialogue, and for the tireless, evidence-based work the team have undertaken in recent years to make visible what has for too long remained unseen, to give voice to those unheard, and to make the case for investing in the health of women and girls as not only a moral imperative, but an economic necessity. 

It is especially meaningful that we gather here today on World Health Day, under the newly launched 2025 World Health Organization global theme and year-long campaign “Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures,” which compels us to centre maternal and newborn health as a critical axis of sustainable development, not just in policy but in practice. It calls upon us to strengthen systems, elevate midwifery and frontline care, and ensure that every woman’s journey to motherhood is supported with dignity, safety, and respect. In so doing, we honour the truth that healthy beginnings are the seedbed of hopeful futures, not only for individual families, but for entire nations.

As a long-standing contributor to the McKinsey Health Institute’s consultation process, and as a Champion of the Global Alliance for Women’s Health at the World Economic Forum, I have witnessed first-hand the rising momentum around this issue. Yet, we must be candid: progress has not kept pace with need.

Women across the world spend, on average, 25 percent more of their lives in poor health than men. This figure, though simple in its expression, encapsulates generations of systemic exclusion. It is a statistic that carries the weight of silence, of misdiagnosed symptoms, of underfunded research, of neglected care, of social and structural inequity.

According to the landmark report “Closing the Women’s Health Gap: A $1 Trillion Opportunity”, developed by McKinsey in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, closing this gap could generate an additional 75 million healthy life years for women each year – the equivalent of adding seven days of healthy life annually for every woman on the planet. This is not an abstraction. This is real time restored to real lives,  time spent learning, working, caregiving, leading, and living fully.

Moreover, the report reveals that addressing the health gap has the potential to contribute an estimated $1 trillion in global GDP annually by the year 2040. If we ever needed proof that women’s health is not a cost but a catalyst, this is it.

Yet unfortunately, numbers alone do not move hearts nor policies. It is our duty to translate data into action, and action into systems that endure. The Wellbeing Foundation Africa, which I founded over two decades ago, stands as a living laboratory of such action. Our work bridges gaps, not only between women and the healthcare they need, but between communities and institutions, data and dignity, local realities and global strategies.

Our flagship Mamacare360 programme, implemented in more than 68 healthcare facilities across Nigeria, has reached over 59,000 pregnant women in the past year alone, and over one million since inception, delivering free, comprehensive, quality antenatal and postnatal education, respectful maternity care, and access to vital services.

Furthering this, the WBFA NICU Plus initiative addresses the needs of the mothers of our smallest and most vulnerable citizens, premature and low-birthweight newborns, ensuring their mothers receive lactation support to breastfeed and bond, even in the most high-stress environments, improving the physical and mental health outcomes for mothers and their babies.

Alongside this, we have expanded the reach of our Mamacare360 Digital Midwifery Platform to ensure that distance or digital divides do not become barriers to trusted, real-time medical advice. 

These WBFA programmes are informed by a clear philosophy that health systems must be people-centred, gender-responsive, and equity-driven. We are guided by the WHO Quality of Care Standards and committed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, but above all, we are inspired by the women we serve, whose stories of resilience, innovation, and courage drive us forward.

Yet our work cannot and must not occur in isolation. The Blueprint to Close the Women’s Health Gap, published this year, provides us with an actionable, five-pillar framework to advance this agenda. It calls on us to: count women, study women, care for women, include all women, and invest in women.

Allow me to reflect on these pillars as they pertain to our context in Nigeria, and to the Wellbeing Foundation Africa’s work.

First, we must count women. The underrepresentation of women in clinical research, health surveillance, and national datasets distorts our understanding and diminishes our response. In Nigeria, we have pioneered the routine collection of sex-disaggregated data through our Mamacare360 programme, providing insight into real-time health indicators at the frontline. The Women’s Health Impact Tracking platform offers a promising model to deepen this, and I call on Nigerian and African governments to adopt and localise it as a tool for informed action.

Second, we must study women. Too many health conditions, ranging from endometriosis and fibroids to maternal hypertensive disorders, are either poorly understood or wrongly assumed to be benign, especially for women of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic groups. Through our partnerships with global and local academic institutions and hospitals, such as the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Lagos University Teaching Hospital  WBFA contributes to the evidence base on maternal health, lactation, neonatal outcomes, and behavioural change. As the Blueprint rightly highlights, nine key conditions alone account for over a third of the women’s health gap. We must ensure that research funding in Nigeria reflects this burden, and that our medical curricula integrate women’s biology across all life stages.

Third, we must care for women. This means not only training providers in gender-sensitive diagnostics and respectful maternity care, but also designing health systems around the real needs of women. At WBFA, we have trained hundreds of midwives and frontline healthcare workers in respectful, rights-based care. Our facilities integrate antenatal education with hygiene interventions such as Teach Clean and WASH improvements, because we understand that dignity in childbirth cannot be achieved without clean water, privacy, and safety.

Fourth, we must include all women. Health equity in Nigeria must mean reaching adolescent girls navigating puberty, women with disabilities, those displaced by conflict, and those in remote or peri-urban areas. Our Digital Midwifery Platform ensures that no woman is left behind due to geography or stigma, offering support through WhatsApp and community health champions, and WBFA midwives and nurses work in schools providing Personal, Social, Health and Economic education to young girls especially, creating safe and brave spaces. 

And finally, we must invest in women. The World Economic Forum estimates that funding the research, education, and care systems required to close the gap could generate over $500 billion in direct market opportunity globally. In Nigeria, investing in women’s health will boost productivity, reduce long-term healthcare costs, and enable more women to participate meaningfully in the economy. Every naira spent on maternal and newborn health returns tenfold in national development.

Colleagues and friends, Nigeria need not wait for permission to lead. From Gombe to Cross River, we have seen what is possible when communities are engaged, data is respected, and care is delivered with compassion. With our young population, health innovation ecosystem, and active civil society, we are well-positioned to close this gap from the bottom up and top down alike.

Let us remember that every missed opportunity in women’s health is not just a woman’s loss, it is society’s loss. Conversely, every advance in women’s health brings gains across education, economic development, environmental sustainability, and peace.

So let this roundtable not be merely a convening. Let it be a covenant. A commitment to act, to align, and to accelerate the closing of the women’s health gap,  not by 2040, but starting today.

For in the words of the Nigerian proverb, “When the root is deep, there is no reason to fear the wind.”

Let us deepen our roots, in evidence, in empathy, and in equity, and rise together to build a future where every woman, everywhere, can live not just longer, but healthier and more empowered lives.

Thank you.

 

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