Dr Ibrahim Dangana, Executive Director of Niger State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, said the government has created 527 centres to provide family planning services across the state.
He made the disclosure on Tuesday in Minna while declaring open a 3-day advance training workshop on Family Planning.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop was to strengthen the capacity of journalists and other participants to develop modern impactful family planning media content for broadcast and publication.
He explained that the centres sited in primary, secondary and private health facilities across the state, would help to address issues associated with family planning and child spacing.
Dangana said the centres were increased from 222 to 527 because of the high demand for family planning services, especially contraceptives during the COVID-19 lockdown.
He however noted that in spite of the increase, the demand for family service was only high among the elites and called on the media to continue to enlighten the public on the advantages of family planning.
“We still have a very low usage of contraceptive in Niger state, out of 100 women, only 7-8 among these women were taking modern contraceptives,” Dangana said.
He, therefore, stressed the need for the media to raise public awareness on the advantages of family planning especially in rural communities, in order to bridge existing cultural and economic gaps.
The executive director said that the state government has the political zeal to provide qualitative healthcare services to the people.
In his presentation, Mr Ahmed Hamidu, Assistant Coordinator in the state Family Planning Unit, disclosed that about 123 million women have no access to family planning services globally.
Hamidu added that only 3 per cent of uneducated and 37 per cent educated women accessed the services worldwide.
He stressed that family planning if well handled, could reduce high infant mortality levels.(NAN)
