By Muhammad Amaan
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has handed over family planning commodities to Kano State Government.
UNFPA’s Assistant Representative and Reproductive Health specialist, Dr Audu Alayande, who handed over the commodities in Kano, said the items would bridge the demand gap for planning products in the state.
He said that UNFPA was aware of the severe stock out of family planning commodities in the state which could affect Nigeria’s drive to achieve the 27 per cent modern contraceptive prevalence rate by 2030.
“What UNFPA has done is to go out for more support from both rational and new donors,” he said.
Dr Alayande commended the Gates Foundation for providing 30 million dollars support to provide commodities to Kano, Kaduna and Lagos states.
“We thank God the first set of the consignment has arrived. We have received four out of the 13 methods we are expecting because we know that our women cannot wait any longer.”
“This is the right thing to do so that the government can begin to use its different channels to distribute the commodities to every facility,” he said.
The state’s commissioner of Health, Dr Abubakar Labaran Yusuf thanked UNFPA for the support and promised that the commodities would be distributed to health facilities.
Dr Yusuf reminded the officials handling the distribution that the commodities were not for sale, adding that the name and one number of every beneficiary should be documented for easy tracking.
“These items are not for sale and I don’t want to see even a syringe in the market.
“We are going to use a utilisation register so that any person who benefits should have her name and phone number written for easy tracking,’” the commissioner said.
