The Africa Centre of Excellence for Population Health and Policy (ACEPHAP) hosted by the Bayero University, Kano has recently obtained a grant of $553,054.86 from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct E-MOTIVE trial in collaboration with University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

The Director of the Centre, Professor Hadiza Galadanci revealed this when she led the Management team of the Centre on a congratulatory visit to the newly appointed Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas.

She explained that the E-MOTIVE trial which stands for “ Early detection  of postpartum hemorrhage and treatment using the World Health Organization MOTIVE First response bundle: a cluster randomized trial with health economic analysis and mixed methods evaluation,  is aimed at preventing maternal deaths by implementing the World Health Organization (WHO) prevention and treatment guideline for Postpartum Hemorrhage. It is being implemented in five countries of Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.

Professor Galadanci also disclosed that 16 health facilities across Nigeria have been selected for the research project, with ACEPHAP coordinating the Project in Nigeria. She further stated other achievements of the Center including the commencement of five MSc programmes across the seven collaborating Departments of Biochemistry, Nursing, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Community Medicine, Paediatrics, Internal Medicine and Psychiatry. She added that, the centre has enrolled 50 students with 14 regional students from Kenya, Cameroun, Niger Republic, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Senegal, etc.

She further revealed that the Centre is developing a Moodle e-learning management system in collaboration with the University’s Centre for Information Technology which she said would be useful even beyond COVID-19. Currently, with the support of the World Bank, Association of African Universities (AAU) and Coursera, students will be taking free courses on the Coursera platform.

Professor Galadanci also stated that ACEPHAP in collaboration with World Health Organization (WHO) had recently concluded a research to evaluate the usability of the Revised Partograph or Labour Care Guide (LCG), adding that maternal health care providers (nurses/midwives and doctors) from Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Hospital all in Kano, Nigeria were trained as part of the evaluation project.

The Vice Chancellor, Professor Sagir Adamu Abbas commended the ACEPHAP team for the successes recorded so far by the Centre within its core mandates of research and postgraduate training. He said the level of successes recorded within the shortest time of the Centre’s existence gladdens all members of the Bayero University family. Again, he reiterated the University’s total commitment to support the centre at all times to achieve its goals and objectives.

The African Centre of Excellence for Population Health and Policy (ACEPHAP) is one of the World Bank supported Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence for Development Impact (ACE Impact) aimed at strengthening interdisciplinary approaches to promote population health outcome through training and research for evidence-informed policy development in Africa.