Sodiq Ojuroungbe
The Federal Government of Nigeria has urged state governments to allocate funds for adolescent health interventions in their annual budgets to promote family health.
The Director of the Gender, Adolescent, School, and Elderly Division at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dr. John Ovuoraye made the call on Thursday during a two-day A360 Pause and Reflect Summit organised by the Society for Family Health for its A360 project.
Addressing the funding challenges of sexual and reproductive health in Nigeria for adolescents, Ovuoraye stressed the need for both federal and state governments to prioritise adolescent health programs.
“At the federal level, we ensure a line budget for these interventions because what is not appropriated and approved by the National Assembly cannot receive funding, we encourage state governments to follow suit to make adolescent health services accessible to all,” he said.
He also highlighted the government’s goal of achieving universal health coverage, which aims to eliminate out-of-pocket payments for sexual and reproductive health services by making health facilities accessible across all communities to eliminate transportation costs.
Ovuoraye further said that the federal government is also adopting a service-wide funding approach, pooling resources from partners, donors, and the government to ensure efficient project execution.
He added that the Minister of Health had signed a commitment to adolescent health interventions at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2023.
In his opening remarks, the Managing Director of SFH, Dr. Omokhudu Idogho, represented by Deputy Managing Director Dr. Jennifer Anyanti, discussed the success of the A360 project in addressing barriers to modern contraception for adolescent girls. He said the project aims to support Nigeria’s goal of achieving a 27 per cent Modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate by 2030.
“Since the inception of A360, we have expanded youth-focused service delivery to 1,717 primary health centres in target states, representing 47% of PHCs in these areas,” Idogho said.
He also noted that over 1,837 healthcare providers have been trained in Youth-Friendly Health Services, contraceptive technology, and the Counselling for Choice strategy, leading to 625,929 new contraceptive adopters.
Additionally, approximately 264,626 adolescents continue to use contraception, addressing one of the main challenges of discontinuation.
Idogho highlighted the success of male Interpersonal Communication Agents in community mobilization, reaching 662,947 husbands of young married adolescents with adolescent sexual and reproductive health messages.
“This strategy significantly contributes to the new adopters recorded,” he added.
The A360 project, operational in eight states, including Jigawa, Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Osun, Ogun, and Oyo, has empowered 153,388 girls economically, trained youth-friendly healthcare providers, and provided comprehensive counselling to 742,929 girls.
Of these, 625,929 have become new contraceptive adopters, with 42 per cent continuing their use.
The summit was attended by key figures, including the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, represented by Dr. Binyerem Ukaire, the Director of the Family Health Department, as well as state commissioners from ministries of health, women affairs, youth, and sports, and executive secretaries from state primary health care boards.
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