By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja
The quest of stakeholders for increased availability of quality family planning commodities and services to Nigerians of reproductive age may soon become a reality as the Federal Government says it has disbursed more money from the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, bringing the total number of releases made as of June, 2022 to N86 billion.
This was made known recently at a ministerial media conference on the developments in the health sector held.
The Basic Healthcare Provision Fund was created in 2019 to strengthen the Primary Health Care (PHC) system, provide a basic minimum package of health services including family planning for all Nigerians, especially the poor and indigent, and also provide emergency medical treatment.
According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Nigeria has 15.1 per cent unmet need for family planning.
Speaking at the ministerial media conference in Abuja, Dr. Salmon Kolo, the Director of Family Health, Federal Ministry of Health, said Nigeria remained committed to the provision of quality access to family planning commodities and services.
According to her, the government would continue to leverage domestic resources so that there would be sustainable financing for family planning commodities in Nigeria without over reliance on donors
While expressing optimism that Nigeria would gradually become self-sufficient in the provision of family planning services, she disclosed that an implementation strategy was already in place to ensure the judicious use of available funds.
Dr. Kolo said, ”So part of what was launched by the Minister of Health was the FP 2030 commitment. This is a global commitment, of which Nigeria is a part.
”The minister, in collaboration with commissioners from all the 36 states of the federation and all relevant partners, including the civil society organisations, developed a national commitment that is all-encompassing, adopting the bottom-up approach.
”So this was signed, and we are now working on a strategy for implementation. We have adopted the balanced scorecard approach to develop that strategy and we have already started engaging with all the key partners to ensure that it is rolled out at all levels, especially at community level.”
Ms Kolo said that the benefit of the federal government’s commitment to the programme was that there would be provision of quality family planning commodities and services to Nigerians of reproductive age, both men and women.
On other sexual and reproductive health issues, she stated that more than 3,700 girls were saved from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a result of the awareness campaign that took place in five states – Ebonyi, Imo, Oyo, Ekiti and Osun.
According to her, there are more than 200 million people, women and girls affected and living with FGM globally and out of these, more than two million are at risk in Nigeria.
She, however, said that to reverse the trend, more than 730,000 men and religious leaders and traditional leaders have been trained on the negative impact of FGM.
”The boys were also not left behind. Over 800 boys were sensitised and trained so that they could work together as partners to protect their sisters from such criminal practices that happen in our respective communities.
”So the project will also be scaled up to other parts of Nigeria, especially in the northern part.
“Jigawa and Kaduna states have been identified for this and awareness will continue to be created until we are able to totally eliminate female genital mutilation.”