- Lack of fund hampers family planning
By: Ademola Orunbon
The Country Director, Pathfinder International, Dr. Amina Aminu Dorayi says family planning is voluntary, that there is no cohesion in family planning, thereby hampering its benefits among those it was meant to serve.
She said it is imperative to leave the information out there, so that people make informed decisions, saying “am not in position to recommend any number of children for anybody”.
Dorayi made this known at a three-day capacity building for media editors, on Advance Family Planning (AFP), held in Abuja.
She said that the campaign should have taken place a long time ago, because girls have right to their bodies, saying they understand these rights and their should be no need to be forced or coerced.
“It is for the benefit of children, women, girls, and families, body autonomy is not questionable, an individual owns his/her own body and nobody has the right to disturb that right”, she said
Also, speaking, Mr. Chima Azubuike said that the inability of the Nigerian government to allocate and release substantial amount of money for the provision of family planning services to women in need has been described as one of the gaps hampering the effective provision of such services in the Nigeria.
Pathfinder International has also raised concern over the development, saying available statistics indicate that more still need to be done for women to effectively and efficiently access family planning services.
He said that in 2017, Nigerian government, through Federal Ministry of Health has committed N1.2billion, noting that constant delay and inconsistency in funds discharged has created a gap of N2.1billion.
He said Nigeria has a low Modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (mCPR) of 13 percent, noting that it was below the sub-saharan average of 24 percent.
He said during the last 5 years, the uses of modern methods has increased from 10 percent to 12 percent, adding that total demand for contraception has increased from 31 percent to 36 percent.
“Indeed, in Lagos, almost half of married women use a method of contraception, as compared within only 2 percent of currently married women in Sokoto and Yobe States”, he said.
