The non-release of budgetary allocations to the Family Planning Department in Niger is frustrating the implementation of the unit’s activities, Mrs. Talatu Abu, Coordinator, Niger Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), has said.
Abu made the disclosure on Tuesday in Minna, at a one-day Pathfinder International Nigeria stakeholders meeting on child spacing.
“The Commissioner of Health recently approved N10 million out of N50 million allocated to Family Planning (FP) section in Niger state,” she said, and decried the delay in the release of funds allocated to the unit.
She listed challenges of the department to include sufficient funds, poof information, as well as cultural and religious beliefs.
She also lamented the limited involvement of men in family development programmes, and regretted that Niger had a low family planning rate with less than 5 per cent in 2013, and 8.1 per cent in 2017.
The official called for improved budgetary allocation and timely release of funds to maximise the implementation of family planning activities in the state.
Dr. Magaji Aminu of Mustapher Specialist Hospital, Minna, in a remark, said that family planning was necessary to help families to decide the number of the children they wanted, and could cater for.
Aminu advised couples seeking family planning to use orthodox methodologies and avoid crude and unhealthy traditional practices.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports (NAN), reports that Pathfinder International Nigeria is a global leader in reproductive health concerned with implementing advance family planning programmes and fulfilling the London Summit on Family Planning Commitments.
NAN also reports that the project is in partnership with the Johns Hopkins University, and funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.