United Nations Population Fund has donated family planning commodities to the Ogun State Government for onward distribution to primary health centres in hard-to-reach communities.
The commodities were presented to the State Central Medical Store in Abeokuta, the state capital by the Maternal Health and Family Planning Analyst, Lagos Liaison Office of the United Nations Children’s Fund, Dr Akinkunmi Akinbajo.
He explained that the state is the second to benefit from the gesture, adding that Ogun had shown interest in the sexual and reproductive health of women and girls.
Akinbajo noted that the state made the procurement through UNFPA and the agency was on the ground to hand over the commodities to the state.
The family planning analyst said that the commodities will later be distributed to health facilities for the benefit of women.
He noted that the country had been operating a free policy on family planning commodities, and a national basket fund used to buy commodities but said due to a widening funding gap, the Federal Ministry of Health decided that states should also contribute to the basket fund to address the gap.
“To ensure the availability of adequate and quality contraceptives, a guideline was developed for state procurement of commodities.
“It is not that states have not been buying commodities, but there was no standard framework for the procurement,” he clarified.
The guideline, he recalled, was launched in 2021 with the support of UNFPA to ensure the availability of more resources for the procurement of the
commodities and to standardise procurement.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Dr Kayode Oladehinde, reiterated the state government’s commitment to improving the health of the people and assured that the state would buy more family planning commodities.
(NAN)
