A United Kingdom-based Nigerian entrepreneur and healthcare professional, Toba Ogunremi, has financed life-saving emergency surgeries and cleared hospital bills for 43 indigent pregnant women and new mothers in Ogun State, in a targeted intervention aimed at reducing preventable maternal deaths.
The initiative, carried out across selected public health facilities in the state, covered critical obstetric emergencies including Caesarean sections, eclampsia, prolonged labour, cord prolapse and post-delivery complications.
Ogunremi also settled outstanding hospital debts that had kept several new mothers in detention after childbirth, in some cases over relatively small sums that delayed discharge and extended suffering.
Among the beneficiaries was Mrs M.K., who was admitted on March 13 with eclampsia and cord prolapse. Her total bill was N430,000, of which N169,600 had been paid, leaving a balance of N260,400, which was fully cleared to enable her discharge.
Another patient, Mrs O. Kehinde, admitted on April 17 for prolonged labour, had an outstanding balance of N276,500 after an initial payment of N103,500 on a total bill of N380,000. The debt was also fully settled under the intervention.
In several other cases, Ogunremi said as little as N70,000 stood between patients and discharge, describing the situation as a stark reflection of the financial barriers confronting vulnerable families in accessing maternal healthcare.
He also revealed that an additional N155,000 was expended at a general hospital to support other emergency cases, adding that one beneficiary received assistance twice before she could finally be discharged due to her family’s inability to raise funds.
Ogunremi said the intervention was born out of a personal experience that reshaped his view of healthcare access in Nigeria.
“It started with a feeling I couldn’t shake,” he said. “I met a desperate husband at a hospital gate years ago. I later saw him again with his wife and child. That moment stayed with me and pushed me to start visiting hospitals—not as a professional, but as someone who could not look away.”
He said many of the cases he encountered involved women detained after childbirth or unable to undergo urgent procedures because of poverty.
“We found mothers who had just given life but were held back because they couldn’t pay. Some needed urgent surgeries and had no one to help,” he said.
According to him, beneficiaries were identified through referrals from ward managers, nurses and doctors who flagged emergency cases requiring immediate financial support.
“There was no formal selection process. It was based on immediate need—doctors simply saying, ‘This patient needs help today,’” he explained.
Ogunremi stressed that all procedures were carried out by Nigerian medical personnel, whom he praised for their competence despite systemic constraints.
“The issue has never been the competence of our doctors, but the system that fails both practitioners and patients,” he said.
Although he declined to state the total amount expended, he said the intervention had cost “tens of millions of naira,” all directed strictly to patient care without administrative deductions.
Looking ahead, he said the project would be expanded to cover at least 100 beneficiaries in 2027, while calling for a more structured mechanism to identify and support indigent patients.
“My goal is to reach about 100 people, but we need a better system to know who truly needs help. So far, we rely on encounters and referrals from healthcare workers,” he said.
He also urged increased individual and institutional support for vulnerable patients, warning that many maternal deaths remain financially driven rather than medically unavoidable.
“People are dying because they cannot pay for treatment, not because solutions don’t exist. We must act—even if it is one person at a time,” he said.
