He Sokoto State The government has begun selecting candidates for 250 positions under the Community Midwifery Linkage and Scholarship Program, an initiative aimed at addressing the shortage of qualified midwives in rural and underserved communities.
The 10-day screening exercise, which began on Tuesday, is being held at the State Ministry of Health Conference Room, Shehu Kangiwa Secretariat, in Sokoto.
The program is being implemented under the Strengthening Access to Adolescent and Reproductive Health (SARAH) Programme, funded by the European Union, with the support of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), in collaboration with the Sokoto State Government.
Declaring the exercise open, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Alhaji Ibrahim Dingyadi, said the initiative was designed to provide young women and girls from underserved communities with professional training in midwifery and ensure that they return to serve their communities after graduation.
Dingyadi said the state was seeking to identify and enroll 250 young women and adolescents from rural and underserved local government areas for community midwifery pre-service training during the 2026 academic year.
She described the initiative as an important intervention that would simultaneously expand educational opportunities for young women and address the shortage of qualified health workers in rural communities.
According to him, applicants must meet specific eligibility requirements, including obtaining four O’Level credits in English Language, Biology and two other subjects.
She added that candidates must be young women or adolescents interested in pursuing careers in midwifery and must be residents or indigenous people of the communities where they are expected to serve after graduating and obtaining employment.
Dingyadi said the ministry had appointed an official to coordinate and monitor the assessment exercise to ensure transparency and strict compliance with program requirements.
Also speaking was UNFPA State Team Leader Dr Rabiatu Sageer, who said the selection process had been designed to meet the admission requirements of community midwifery schools while ensuring compliance with the linkage component of the scheme.
He said the program was particularly important for rural communities where limited access to trained health workers continues to pose a challenge to maternal and newborn health.
“The essence of the linkage scheme is to ensure that the beneficiaries, after receiving their training, return to their respective communities and provide the much-needed maternal and neonatal health services,” Sageer said.
He added that the intervention aimed to develop a sustainable health workforce drawn from the communities themselves and familiar with their specific health needs.
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Sageer revealed that the broader goal of the initiative was to train 500 indigenous health workers, who would be legally bound to serve their respective communities after completing their training.
He said 250 beneficiaries would be selected in the 2026 cycle and enrolled in the two community midwifery schools in Sokoto State.
The UNFPA official said the initiative was part of broader efforts by the Sokoto State Government and its development partners to increase the availability of qualified midwives and improve access to reproductive, maternal, neonatal and adolescent health services.
The screening exercise is being supervised by the Sokoto State Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Umar Faruk Wurno, together with officials from the Ministry of Health, UNFPA and other stakeholders.
The scheme is expected to strengthen the rural health workforce by training community midwives who can provide essential maternal and neonatal services, particularly in underserved areas of Sokoto State.
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