Kaduna State Government has approved the domestication of the guidelines in the National Guidelines for State-Funded Procurement of Family Planning (FP) Commodities.
Ummi Yusuf Aboki the Commissioner of Planning and Budget Commission disclosed a State Level Dissemination of the National Guidelines For States-Funded Procurement of Family Planning Commodities in Kaduna.
“For us is a huge milestone because this will help us in improving the supply of family planning commodities to the citizens of Kaduna State”.
She said the National guidelines were developed to guide States that have expressed willingness to begin State level procurement of family planning commodities that will help address the incessant stock out of the commodities in the States.
“You may be aware that the FP commodities have always been procured centrally through the National Contraceptives Basket Fund which was established in 2011 for the procurement of contraceptives with the support from donor agencies and UNFPA as the procurement agent.
However, Nigeria faces uncertainty regarding sustainability. This uncertainty is largely attributed to the dwindling financial resources, donor fatigue, the untimely and often incomplete release of Federal Government Counterpart Funding”.
According to the Planning and Budget Commissioner, the alarming widening funding gap of 203.09 million dollars between 2016 to 2022 has therefore posed a potential threat to the State and country at large in terms of population explosion where the birth rate is uncontrolled, high maternal mortality rate, teenage pregnancies, and obstetric fistula.
Thus, She said, “the state government under the able leadership of our able Governor, expressed its willingness and readiness to begin procurement of the FP commodities to complement National efforts.
This singular effort led to the development of National Guidelines to guide States who also wish to toe the line. And today we are here to unveil the document that was developed with the participation of key stakeholders and support from UNFP”.
In a keynote address by the Commissioner of Health, Amina Baloni said Nigeria prioritizes family planning to improve access to services and commodities, aimed to avert maternal death.
“The use of modern conventional FP Commodities for contraception safe lives by preventing maternal and infant mortality and morbidity associated by unintended pregnancies”.
Dr. Amina Baloni noted that access to contraceptives is recognized as a key role in achieving national and international development goals.
“Despite the importance of family planning and child spacing the country as a whole faced had experienced several issues which influenced the availability of the commodities at sub-national and state levels. These issues include budget cut off family planning procurement by 90 percent in the 2018 budget”.
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