Medical experts have said that high fertility rates and low family planning uptake contribute to poor maternal and child health outcomes and exacerbate rapid population growth.
The experts said this on Wednesday at the 8th Nigeria Family Planning Conference 2024 in Abuja, themed, ‘Sustaining commitments for family planning within the Nigeria health sector renewal investment initiative, advancing progress towards achieving FP2030 goals,’ organised by the Association for the Advancement of Family Planning in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
In his opening remarks, Chairman of the Management Committee, AAFP and Chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the conference, Dr. Ejike Oji, said, “Let us embrace this opportunity to align efforts, inspire innovation, and renew our commitments to family planning as a key driver of sustainable development in Nigeria. As a background, family planning is far more than a health innovation, as it is a transformative tool that empowers individuals, strengthens families, and accelerates national development.
“It saves lives, reduces maternal and infant mortality, promotes gender equity, and also advances social and economic progress, the evidence is clear. $1 invested in contraceptive services saves $3 in maternal and newborn health costs by reducing unintended pregnancies.
“These savings unlock critical investments in education, infrastructure, and healthcare, fostering the conditions needed to achieve Nigeria’s demographic dividend. In Nigeria, family planning programmes are making strides, but challenges persist. Disparities in access shaped by regional, educational, and socioeconomic differences continue to deny millions of women and girls the autonomy to make decisions about their reproductive health.
“High fertility rates, coupled with low family planning uptake, contribute to poor maternal and child health outcomes and exacerbate rapid population growth. These challenges demand renewed urgency, innovation, and collaboration to achieve the FP2030 targets.
“Subsequently, the Nigerian government demonstrated growing dedication and marched with action and released $4m for this counterpart support that has made it a very major landmark announcement and taking every laudable initiative to tackle our growing population, the renewed commitment to the FP2030 global initiative, setting a financial target of one per cent of the health budget to be set aside for FP.
“The launch of the strategic plan for the implementation of the right population policy, and the setting up of the population advisory group at the National Population Commission, integrating family planning into the health care provision fund also to guarantee free services for marginalised groups, and introducing initiatives like the Maternal Mortality Reduction Innovation Initiative programme to recruit skilled health workers and enhance service delivery.”
Speaking on the progress on FP in Nigeria so far, the PMA20 Co-Principal Investigator, Performance Monitoring for Action/Nigeria, and Co-chair, Scientific Subcommittee, International Conference on Family Planning, Columbia, Funmilola OlaOlorun, said, “What we need to do is to follow very strictly what we have in the blueprint. We already have the information on what we can do to get there. We can harness the resources. We can continue to work with our partners and collaborate. We can do what is already documented in the blueprint.
“But, we cannot do business as usual, because with business as usual, it will take us five years to add a two percentage point increase. But what we need to do is to increase the modern CPR by a two percentage point increase every single year between now and 2030.
“But I believe we can do it. We need the funding. We need the motivation. We need the dedication, and we can get there and we can surpass that goal.”
A Director at the Reproductive Health Department at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Samuel Oyeniyi, noted that though Nigeria is on track to meeting the FP2030 target, the progress is slow.
“We have been able to categorise it yearly that we need two per cent every year to reach FP2030. But more so, we need to integrate more.
“I believe if we integrate more, we’ll achieve more, I think that is the gap we have not been able to do. And we need to do it. We already have a direction. We already know how to go about it, even in the integration. So, we’re on track, and with what we are doing, if we put more effort, we are going to meet the target,” Oyeniyi said.
