Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has launched a nationwide campaign to end to end child marriage, making Nigeria the 16th country to join an African Union campaign to end the practice by 2030.

Nearly one out of every two girls in Nigeria is married off under age of 18, making Nigeria the country with the world’s highest number of child brides.

Nigeria committed to ending all forms of harmful practices, including child marriage, against women and girls at an African Union summit in 2014, in line with Sustainable Development Goals.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported program in Nigeria; Strengthening Health Outcomes Through Private Sectors (ShOPS) said it has improve the quality and sustainability of family planning and maternal and child health services in Nigeria through the private sector participation.
 

Nigerian legislators from the Senate and House Committees on Health, Appropriation, and National Planning who are attending a legislative retreat in Johannesburg, South Africa, on budgeting for health, remarked on Monday that bureaucracy is the key obstacle to implementing the mandatory 15 per cent budgetary allocation to the health sector.
 

“Our programmes are structured to ensure that a pregnant woman does not die due to her inability to access quality services during pregnancy and childbirth, that a child is not lost from preventable diseases, that communities are not overburdened with endemic diseases, and that community linkages are harnessed and promoted.” – Nasir El-Rufai, Governor of Kaduna State.