Nigeria’s population continues to increase rapidly with no commensurate development in health care service delivery. With a current estimated population of 186 million and an annual growth rate of about 2.5%, Nigeria’s huge population, fuelled by high birth rate without good family planning, can be a huge burden with resultant poor health indices such as high maternal and infant deaths. Nigeria’s maternal and child deaths is one of the highest in the world.

The Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI), has advocated stiff penalties as a way to abolish quackery (in the health sector) which has led to death of many Nigerians.
 
Oyo State Team Leader of NURHI, Mrs. Stella Akinso made this suggestion on Wednesday in Ibadan while speaking at a Media Round Table on ‘Save Motherhood’ organized by Development Communications (DevComs), Network in conjunction with NURHI.
 

Development Communications Network (DEVCOMS), an NGO, has called for increased funding of family planning services to raise the level of contraceptive use to 36 per cent by 2018.
The organisation’s media specialist, Iliya Kure, said in a paper he presented to mark 2017 Safe Motherhood Week, that current national contraceptive commodities usage was slightly above 15 per cent.
The paper is entitled `Child spacing: Key strategy to reducing maternal death – time to act.’
He said, “‘Nigerian government is off the track at federal level and state level.

Development Communications Network, DEVCOMS, in collaboration with Nigerian Urban Rural Health Initiative, NURHI, organized a 2-day training for social media influencers/bloggers on Family Planning Projection in Nigeria.
 
Held in Lagos, Ibadan and Kaduna, the focus of the training was designed to increase the awareness and need to adopt family planning methods in the reduction of maternal and newborn deaths recorded in the country.