Nigeria to face shortage of family Planning commodities – UNFPA
By Samuel Luka, Bauchi
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has stressed that Nigeria stands the risk of facing shortage of family Planning commodities due to failure of the government to disburse funds for the procurement of the commodities in the National Basket Fund, despite making a commitment of 4 million US Dollars yearly contribution.
The Programme Associate of the UNFPA, Adegbotolu Oladipo stated this while giving an overview of the National Basket Fund and the State based financing Tracker at a 3-day technical workshop on the development of Bauchi State-based financing Tracker for family planning services.
The workshop was organized and conducted in Jos, Plateau state by the Bauchi State ministry of health, State Primary Health Care Development Board with support from UNFPA yesterday.
According to Oladipo, realizing the achievement of Family Planning (FP) target of 27% Modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (MCPR) by 2030 might be impossible due to lack of commitment from the Nigerian government.
He explained that the target might not be realized unless Nigeria meets up with her commitment by end of August 2024, adding that, in 2022-2023 Nigeria did not benefit from UNFPA supplies partnership matching fund of approximately 1.5million US Dollars yearly.
Oladipo who warned that Nigeria is at the verge of missing 2024 match fund of 2million dollars, also noted that the country did not receive from the second tranche of commodities worth 6m dollars from UNFPA partnership of 347.709 million dollars.
He further cautioned that Nigeria is potential of losing the third tranche approval if the commitment is not fulfilled by the end of August 2024.
Oladipo who said that the total commitment of Nigeria to FP is put at $40,755,218.40 million, out of which UNFPA made a commitment of $8.7 million, explained that $10.1 million has already been allotted.
While disclosing that the funding gap for 2024 stood at 24 million dollars, Oladipo noted that the gap accounts for the stock out of family planning commodities.
He added that the impact of the funding gap is estimated to lead to over 800,000 unintended pregnancy, 10,280 maternal deaths and some 340 unsafe abortions.
The programme associate while urging Bauchi State government to make provisions for funds for the procurement of FP commodities, observed that States like Lagos, Ogun, Delta and of recent, Adamawa and Rivers have made contributions for the procurement of commodities for their states.
Oladipo explained that an average cost of FP commodity per woman stands at 3.2 dollars, noting that the return on each dollar is 69.3 dollars.
In his comment, Bauchi State Commissioner of Health, Dr Adamu Sambo represented by director medical services, Dr Suleiman Abubakar said the financing tracker will help government monitor FP funds.
On his part, the Executive chairman, Bauchi State Primary Health Care Development Board, Dr Rilwanu Mohammed said there is the need for health related MDAs to unbundle their sources of funding.
Our Correspondent reports that, before leaving Jos, Bauchi State developed a state based financing tracker and mapped out strategies for the dissemination of the tracker.
