Family Planning Services Demand Now at 70 Percent in Jigawa – TCI
By: Ahmed Aminu, Dutse
The demand for family planning services has risen to 70 percent in Jigawa state following widespread mobilization and enlightenment campaign in both rural and urban areas of the state.
This was disclosed by the Programme Manager, The Challenge Initiative (TCI) Nigeria, Mr. Ankale Malachi Kongude, during a roundtable with journalists in Dutse, the state capital.
“We must commend the media for their hard work, particularly through their facilities and field visits to uncover the true situation on the ground.
“Your rigorous public enlightenment campaigns have also played a significant role in dispelling many misconceptions about family planning. Today, rural women have become champions of family planning within their communities.
“However, the growing demand has overwhelmed supply, with most facilities running out of stock for more than two weeks each month,” he said.
Mr. Ankale explained that during the intervention periods, the TCI had identified key focus areas, including advocacy, capacity building for service providers, community engagement, and demand generation.
“For our project, we selected seven local government areas where we provided direct intervention across 37 facilities.
“We also supported the government in scaling up efforts. Evidently, demand for family planning services had been increased to 60 to 70 percent.
“While we celebrate the success achieved, we are also working tirelessly during this transition period to ensure the state government sustains these gains and continues engaging communities for better outcomes,” Mr. Ankale added.
In his remark, the Chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Zangina Mohd Garba, pledged that members of the Chapel will continue to collaborate with partners and government to raise public awareness about the importance of family planning and access to reproductive healthcare services to reduce maternal and child mortality.
Zangina noted that TCI’s intervention had significantly strengthened demand generation and service accessibility for family planning and other reproductive healthcare services in the state.
He said high rate of maternal and child mortality remains one of the major public health concerns in Jigawa state and commended TCI for complementing government efforts in addressing the challenge.
“With support from DEVCOMs, the media was effectively engaged during TCI’s intervention project in Jigawa State.
“We learned a great deal from this fruitful engagement, and we believe that through collaborative efforts and sincere commitment, all misconceptions and challenges surrounding family planning can be addressed,” Zangina said.
