The Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Millennium Development Goal Fund is set to reach 36 per cent access to family planning contraceptives in 2018.
The Reproductive Health Division headed by Dr Kayode Afolabi, made the disclosure on Tuesday during a Family Planning Watch final dissemination event in Abuja.
Family planning has continued to win more converts in Abia State following an intervention programme, Strengthening Health Outcomes through the Private Sector (SHOPS) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which targeted the private sector health providers for capacity building.
A gynaecologist and wife of Niger State governor, Dr. Amina Abubakar Sani Bello, has called for child spacing to check the increasing rate of maternal mortality in the state.
In an address at the opening ceremony of the World Contraception Day (WCD) Ambassadors project at Gyigyi and Sharuwadna communities in Shiroro Local Government Area, Dr. Amina said the maternal mortality rate in the state was high and that all hands must be on deck to check it.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) says it has trained personnel in 44 private hospitals in Nasarawa state in North central Nigeria, on improved quality family planning methods.
Mrs Ayodele Iroko, the Chief of Party, Strengthening Health Organisation through Private Sector (SHOPS), Nigeria, disclosed this in Lafia the state capital.
He said USAID-SHOPS Project is aimed at building the capacity of the private health sector toward improving the quality of family planning services, and also increase access to such services.
The Federal Ministry of Health in partnership with Population Services International, PSI, and the Society for Family Health, SFH, is unveiling in Abuja today, results of the FPwatch research on Nigeria’s contraceptive methods and services.
FPwatch is a multi-country research project designed to generate evidence on modern contraceptive methods and service availability through surveys administered to all public and private health facilities and outlets.
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.
Programme Manager HERFON, Dr. Hassana Adamu has said only 13.9 percent of women of reproductive age in Nasarawa state, have access to contraceptives which is far below the national target of 26 percent.
Adamu who said there is need to scale up the budget for family planning, attributed the low adoption rate in Nasarawa State to lack of policy guidelines and poor budget allocation in the State.
Bayo Onanuga, Managing Director, News Agency of Nigeria has urged journalists to explore other ways of enlightening Nigerians on the advantages of family planning.
He said this was necessary to address the misconceptions the public had about family planning.
Onanuga gave the advice in Abuja on Thursday when he received members of the Local Organising Committee of the 2016 National Family Planning Conference.
The conference got off with a raft of meetings with religious leaders, youth groups and women’s organisations, in efforts to get all on the same page with family planning. What singular lessons stand out?
