Kaduna Govt Expands Family Planning Services To Over 1,000 Facilities

The Kaduna State Government has expanded family planning services from 255 designated facilities to more than 1,000 public healthcare facilities across the State.

Deputy Governor, Dr Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe, disclosed this on Tuesday at the High-Level Integrated End-of-Project Dissemination event held at Hotel 17, Kaduna.

Balarabe said the expansion was one of the significant outcomes of the project, which focused on strengthening family planning and primary healthcare services in the state.

According to her, about 995 Community Pharmacists and Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) were trained, accredited and competency-certified to provide family planning and primary healthcare services.

She added that the providers offered family planning services to women and treated children under five for illnesses including malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition.

Balarabe said evidence from the project showed that properly trained, supervised and regulated private providers could deliver family planning services at a quality level comparable to those provided at public primary healthcare facilities.

Earlier in her opening remarks, the State Commissioner for Health, Umma Ahmed, said the theme of the event, ‘Sustaining Gains in Family Planning and Primary Health through the Private Sector’, aligned with the state’s commitment to Universal Health Coverage and improved maternal, newborn and child health outcomes.

Ahmed said Community Pharmacists and PPMVs were often among the first points of contact for healthcare, particularly in underserved communities.

She said the project had shown that with appropriate training, accreditation, regulation and support, private providers could effectively complement the public health system.

The commissioner disclosed that the 995 providers reached through the project provided family planning services to 347,703 women, while 178,125 children under five received treatment for childhood illnesses, including malaria, diarrhoea, pneumonia and malnutrition.

Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of the Kaduna State Primary Health Care Board, Prof Bello Yusuf-Jamoh, commended the Integrate Project for its contribution to strengthening family planning services in the state.

Jamoh said the programme had expanded access to quality, affordable, and client-centred family planning services through the engagement and capacity-building of Community Pharmacists and PPMVs.

He said the approach had brought services closer to communities and helped reduce barriers to accessing reproductive health services.