Majority of Nigerian married women do not use contraceptives – AHBN

Dr Aminu Magashi, the Coordinator, Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN) said that 88 per cent of married women in the country do not use contraceptives.

Magashi, who is also a Board Member, Partnership for Maternal, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH), said this on Tuesday in Abuja, during a review of the Fertility and Family Planning component of the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS).

Former Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole wrote to the UN Secretary-General, Authonio Gutherres, and affirmed that “Nigeria is committed to fast track work with local and international NGOs, CSOs, CBOs & Government Agencies to address socio cultural barriers and limitations to family planning services.

There was also a commitment by Nigeria at the London FP2020 summit in July 2017 towards enhancing effort at improving the lives of women, adolescents and children not only in Nigeria but in the rest of the developing world.

Nigeria, therefore, made commitment under the FP2020 to reach a Modern Contraceptives Preventative Rate (MCPR) of 27 per cent by 2030.

Magashi, who also spoke on the National Family Planning Blueprint, described it as “clog in the will to achieving the National Family Planning goals.”

He said “the Family Planning Blueprint contains a vague commodity supply strategy, though the implementation of the policies mostly conducted at the state level.”

He advised the media and CSOs to hold governments at all levels accountable.

He said “there is the need for relevant agencies to raise awareness to ensure that government increased allocation for purchase of Family Planning commodities and implementation of policies that would ensure their uptake.”

The coordinator explained that the implications of not catering for reproductive health ranged from economic to security challenges.

He noted that “reproductive health decreases along the line of decreasing education level, which means that less educated individuals are less likely to seek family planning services.”

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) was highest in the North West, with 6.6 children per woman and lowest in the South, with 3.9 children per woman, Magashi explained.

The 2018 NDHS, the sixth Demographic Health Survey in Nigeria since 1990, interviewed a nationally representative sample of 40,427 households for the survey.

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