Amid Apathy, 73,949 Niger Women Access Family Planning Services

Despite the apathy to family planning in northern parts of Nigeria, 73,949 women have accessed family planning services under the Integrat-E Project in Niger State, with 25,920 recorded as new acceptors across 14 local government areas.

The state commissioner for Health, Dr Murtala Muhammad Bagana, disclosed this at the end-of-project dissemination workshop held in Minna, yesterday.

Bagana said the intervention generated 26,812 Couple Years of Protection (CYP) and helped avert an estimated 7,721 unintended pregnancies during the implementation period.

The commissioner explained that the project, which brought together government, private-sector health providers, regulators, communities and development partners, was designed to improve access to essential health services, particularly through private-sector providers.

According to him, the project trained 362 private-sector providers, comprising 40 community pharmacists and 322 patent and proprietary medicine vendors (PPMVs) in the 14 LGAs.

Bagana added that the intervention also strengthened the capacity of 42 LGA officers responsible for monitoring, family planning and integrated Community Case Management (iCCM), while enabling 109,871 children to receive selected primary healthcare services.

He stressed the need for the state government to sustain the gains recorded under the project, saying the completion of INTEGRAT-E should not mark the end of the progress achieved.

“As INTEGRAT-E comes to an end, our responsibility is to ensure that its gains are not lost,” the Commissioner said. He said the state would continue to strengthen collaboration with private-sector providers, maintain quality supervision, use health data to guide decision-making and integrate successful approaches from the project into the broader health system.

The Commissioner commended the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for its support, as well as the Society for Family Health, the Pharmacy Council of Nigeria, Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency, LGA teams, community pharmacists, PPMVs, community leaders and other stakeholders for their contributions to the project.

Earlier, the representative of the Gates Foundation, Mrs Rodio Diallo, urged the Niger State Government to sustain and institutionalise the gains recorded.

LEADERSHIP findings, however, revealed that most families in rural and suburban areas still have apathy against family planning and are unwilling to access the services.