From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Medical experts including the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED), Ondo, Prof Adesegun Fatusi have advocated for improved investment in family planning, calling on the federal government and other agencies of government to contribute significantly to family planning.
This was even as the experts decried the contraceptive commodity funding gap in Nigeria, which is estimated to be 27.4 million Dollars as at March 2025.
Rising from a conference with the theme “The Impact of Family Planning on Socio-economic Development: New Evidence” organised by the Academy for Health Development (AHEAD) and the Family Planning Impact Consortium held on the medical experts lamented that “the withdrawal of USAID has significantly reduced contraceptive availability in Nigeria.”
In a statement issued at the end of the conference, the medical experts drawn from academic and health institutions across the country said “while the federal government has initiated some efforts towards closing the gaps created by USAID’s withdrawal from Nigeria’s health system and related development field, the picture is not clear yet.”
The statement released by Prof Fatusi added that “at the moment, there are additional concerns about the future of Family Planning supplies in Nigeria such as the use of Presidential Initiative for unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain for contraceptive funding rather than the usual mechanism of the National Contraceptive Basket Fund, the reported reduction in the Federal Government of Nigeria’s budget for family planning from #2.225 billion in 2024 to #66.39 million in the 2025 budget, the delay on the part of the Federal Government to renew its co-financing agreement with UNFPA, among others.”
Fatusi, a Professor of Community Medicine and President of the Academy for Health Development (AHEAD) advocated for improved investment in family planning services.
“An investment of 1 million US dollars would enable over 65,000 women and couples to receive modern contraceptive care, thereby averting 15,455 unintended pregnancies, 6,044 unplanned births, and 6,321 unsafe abortions as well as prevent the death of 83 women and girls,” he stressed.
According to him “the new research evidence generated by the Family Planning Impact Consortium indicates that each additional $1 investment in family planning would yield $2 of cost savings in pregnancy-related and new-born care. The evidence from the Consortium shows that investment in Family Planning contributes to social and economic growth of countries and family planning improves women’s likelihood of getting a paying job.”
Despite some advancements recorded over the past decade, the meeting said “Nigeria’s family planning indicators remain suboptimal with the modern contraceptive prevalence rate still only 15 percent, the level of unmet contraceptive needs still as high as 21 percent and only 45 percent of family planning demands being met by modern methods.”
The gathering recommended, among others, high-level advocacy and engagement with critical stakeholders to address challenges related to low budgetary allocation to family planning and contraceptive commodity procurement and non-release of allocated funds and renewal of co-financing agreement with UNFPA by the Federal Government.
Experts at the conference include Prof. Rhoda Mundi, Dr Akin Akinbajo of UNFPA, Dr Ahmad Abdulwahab, representative of the Director General, Nigeria Governors Forum; Professor Olalekan Yinusa (Development Economist and former Commissioner for Economic Planning, Budget and Development, Osun State; and Professor Funmilayo Banjo (Demographer and former Director, Centre for Gender and Social Policy Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University), and officials of several State Ministries of Economic Planning.
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