Following fears of projection that Nigeria would become the world’s third most populous nation by 2050, stakeholders have counselled Federal Government to take the issue of family planning seriously, saying it is critical to controlling the rising country’s population.
 
The stakeholders, mainly experts in family planning also reiterated that increase in the uptake of family planning remains a sure-way of reducing poverty and maternal deaths.
 
They have therefore urged governments at all levels to invest in family planning by making the commodities free and available to the people and to also, ensure that barriers to family planning services were removed.
 
The experts made the call at a Contraceptive Technical Updates (CTUs) for policy makers organised by the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) II in Lagos, recently.
 
They stressed that there is need to curb the rising Nigeria’s population which does not match available resources and infrastructures in place.
 
In view of this, couples have been enjoined to embrace family planning in order to have only the number of children that they can cater for.
 
Giving the current economic realities, the experts confirmed that couples with many children now find it difficult to provide essential needs of their children such as good nutrition, quality education, adequate clothing, quality health care and shelter.
 
Read more at http://independent.ng/take-family-planning-seriously-curb-poverty-expert...