Idowu Abdullahi
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Ali Pate, has said Nigeria must increase its domestic funding for family planning to meet the 2030 target.
Aside from funding, the minister also stressed the need to integrate family planning services into essential health components such as antenatal care and immunisation.
The FP2030 is a global partnership supporting women’s and girls’ reproductive rights. It aims to empower women and girls to lead healthy lives and make informed choices about contraceptive use.
It also aims to hasten the process of addressing obstacles that delay the advancement of commitments made by governments towards FP, by strengthening result-oriented partnerships with stakeholders and experts.
Nigeria had missed the initial FP target set for 2020, partly due to the government’s failure to fund the programme, thereby hindering progress. FP 2020 goal was to enable 120 million additional women and girls of reproductive age globally to have access to contraceptives by the year 2020.
After the unmet deadline, the FP 2020 target indicators show that Nigeria has only 12 per cent MCPR for women.
But speaking on Thursday at the 8th Nigeria Family Planning Conference 2024 in Abuja, Pate, who was represented at the event by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Daju Kachollom, reiterated the government’s commitment to meet FP2030.
Pate assured that the President Bola Tinubu-led administration plans to achieve the Modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate of 27 per cent to meet the Family Planning 2030 (FP2030) target.
The minister maintained that managing population growth would be easier with family planning.
He explained that the FP2030 goal aligns with the country’s health sector reforms to ensure that Nigerians of reproductive age have access to comprehensive, affordable, and high-quality FP service.
“As we gather here today, we do so with a sense of urgency and purpose as Nigeria’s rapid population growth continues to outpace our ability to meet the increasing demands for jobs, housing, healthcare, education and other essential services,” he said.
He said this reality underscores the importance of FP as a strategic tool for managing population growth while addressing the challenge of maternal and infant morbidity and mortality.
Giving the breakdown of the progress made, Pate said fertility rates have declined from an average of six children per woman in 1990 to 4.8 today and MCPR had risen from four per cent to 15 per cent.
However, the minister noted that the unmet need for FP remains high at 20 per cent, noting that regional disparities exist.
According to him, to accelerate progress towards achieving FP2030, the government must prioritise improved domestic funding for FP services and also integrate FP into essential services.
“We can do this by embedding FP into antenatal care, immunisation programmes and HIV treatment programmes, coupled with its integration into the health insurance scheme to enhance the delivery and uptake of FP services,” he said.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of FP2030, Samukeliso Dube, said there were 98 million new users of modern contraceptives globally.
She said, “Conceptualised in 2012, FP2030 sought to achieve 120 million additional users of FP by 2020, today we are standing at 98 million new users of Modern Contraceptives globally.
“The scenario that has been painted today is that of political will and nothing is going to work without seeing politicians coming in full force, supported by commissioners and governors, ministers and presidents.”
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