Prof. Josiah Mutihir, the Chairman, Voice for Family Planning and Reproductive Health Centre, a Civil Society Organisation, has called for cash back up for budgetary allocations made towards family planning in Plateau.
Mutihir, represented by Mrs Hannatu Dung, its Secretary, made the appeal on Tuesday in Jos, during a media roundtable.
The roundtable was organised by the Media for Family Planning, with the theme: “Bridging the Funding Gap on Family Planning Services in Plateau State”.
Mutihir said that the budget provision for family planning should be backed up with key releases, adding that there should be conscientious commitment by the federal, state and local governments towards family planning.
He said that the Plateau State Primary Health Care Development Board should be supported to implement cost effective evidence based family planning programmes and interventions.
”According to NDHS of 2018, Plateau has a high unmet family planning need.
”Due to insufficient funding family planning services aren’t reaching the people as expected.
”The state has a growing but slow contraceptive prevalence which is currently at 22 per cent based on the Nigeria Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) of 2018,” he said.
Earlier, Dr Philemon Yohanna, the State Programme Coordinator, The Challenge Initiative (TCI), a Non-Governmental Organisation, said the funding for family planning in the state was inadequate.
He further said that due to the inadequate funding by the government in respect to family planning the average out of pocket expenditure for family planning was on the rise in the state.
Yohanna called for effective budgetary allocation and release of funding to mitigate the out of commodity and consumables syndrome as regards family planning in the state.
According to him, family planning or child spacing is vital to the reduction of maternal mortality.
Mrs Rehila Telfim, the Programme Coordinator for Family Planning, Plateau Primary Health Care Development Board, disclosed that the state family planning services was faced with challenges of inadequate consumables, skilled service providers and ignorance.
She noted that there were still funding gaps for family planning in the state. (NAN)
