The Nasarawa State government has decried the low rate which women of child bearing age get access to family planning facilities in the state.
The Director of Public Health in the state Ministry of Health, Ibrahim Adamu, stated this at a Three-Day Media Capacity Building Workshop for Journalists, organized by Pathfinder International Nigeria, in Lafia the Nasarawa State capital, lamenting that in spite of the fact that over 80 per cent of people in Nasarawa State were aware of the family planning programme, only 16 per cent of them were utilising the facilities.
Adamu said that “only one out of six women of child bearing age is accessing the Family Planning Programme in the state.”
Explaining that family planning services were now available in 770 Primary Healthcare Centres, PHCs; 17 Secondary Healthcare Centres, SHCs and two Tertiary Healthcare Centre, THCs in the state, the public health director said, “Each of these facilities provided by the state government offers some forms of family planning services according to the desired methods of an individual.
“These services are provided based on certain number of personnel and the commodities available at the clinic.”
Adamu, however, said that in spite of the low rate of access to Family Planning Programme in the state, some women were still accessing those facilities to enhance their health condition.
Coordinator of Nasarawa State Family Planning Programme, Salome Vincent, revealed that the Family Planning Programme was facing challenges in the state, which ranged from lack or delay in the release of funds to conduct family planning projects and insecurity in some parts of the state.
