FG introduces new product to scale up family planning

Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunimbe Mamora says the ministry will soon introduce the Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate Subcutaneous Injection (DMPA-SC) which allows self-injection in hard to reach places.

Mamora disclosed this at a zoom meeting on the National Family Planning Media Campaign Launch in Abuja on Thursday

He said it was an effort to ensure sustainable family planning.

“This is the process of introducing scaling up of new family planning commodities to expand Nigeria’s Method Mix to allow for free choice.

“The product which has been formulated to allow for self-injection is considered a game-changer in Nigeria’s family planning landscape.

“It is indeed very useful for ensuring continuation subsequent doses in hard-to-reach areas as clients will be given some vials to take home after some training on its use,” Mamora said.

He said that family planning was an important intervention for promoting proper timing and spacing of pregnancies as well as assisting to achieve pregnancies where challenges existed.

“It also promotes maternal and child survival with a potential for reducing maternal and child mortality and morbidity by 30 per cent,” he said.

Mamora said that a successful implementation was key to achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He said the ministry had been collaborating with development partners to build synergy toward provision of quality family planning information services for the purposes of prevention of unintended pregnancies and prevention of sexually transmitted infections.

“It is part of the government’s efforts to provide a roadmap for family planning implementation as well as proper coordination.

“The ministry revised the Nigeria Family Planning Blueprint (Scale Up Plan 2020-2024) which was developed in 2014 as a follow up to the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning.

“The roadmap will provide guidance for stakeholders for implementation of family planning in Nigeria.

“This important document spells out six thematic areas and their cost implications,” he said.

Mamora said that many states had developed their State-specific Costed Implementation Plans and Annual Operational Plans to guide implementation of family Planning in their domains.

According to him, other key interventions put in place by the ministry include the “Task Shifting and Task Sharing Policy”

“Nigeria adopted the Task Shifting and Task Sharing Policy in 2014 to address the acute manpower challenges in the country.

“Under this policy, rational distribution of tasks is undertaken to allow less qualified health care workers to undertake tasks they are not earlier allowed to perform, thereby freeing the more qualified ones to attend to other more demanding tasks,” he said.

He also listed the “Free Family Planning Commodities Policy” as another intervention.

“The government instituted the Free Family Planning Commodities Policy in 2014 to address lack of access to FP information and services because of cost.

“This Policy was adopted after a study showed that a significant percentage of Nigerians of reproductive age were unable to access FP information services.

“Ministry of Health is also in the process of finalising modalities for inclusion of Hormonal Intrauterine Device in Nigeria’s public health system,” he explained.

Mamora said the ministry also adopted “Development of the National Guidelines for State Funded Procurement of Contraceptive Commodities.

Speaking, the National Coordinator Rotary, Reproductive Maternal and Child Health (RMCH), Prof. Emmanuel Lufadeju said that the overall goal for the training was to inform all sexually active women and men that they could freely access family planning products and services.

“It is our hope that information spread by journalists through their country wide reports will contribute to the realisation of better smaller manageable families for the people of Nigeria.

“This will help Nigeria to harness a Demographic Transition from its growing population.

“Effective family planning can reduce maternal morbidity and mortality resulting from child birth and pregnancy complications substantially,” he said.

Also, Mrs Adaora Anyanwutaku, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Information and Culture, said that the objective of the campaign would go a long way to educate and enlighten all sexually active women and men to access family planning products and services.

Anyanwutaku said that the media campaign was aimed at the entire populace using the multi-media channels like TV, posters, fliers, billboards, brochures, audio messaging, churches and mosques.

“You will agree with me that there is an increasing level of maternal morbidity and mortality resulting from childbirth and pregnancy complications.

“This ugly situation calls for public information and enlightenment not only from the media but also from all relevant stakeholders and our international partners,” she said.

Anyanwutaku said the public campaign by the media and stakeholders would contribute to realisation of better and smaller manageable families.

According to her, the combination of these channels will help reduce pregnancy complications substantially and improve the health status of our mothers and their children.