Women call for increased availability of contraceptives in Jigawa

Women in Jigawa have appealed for increased availability of commodities by the government, to enable women access quality and free family planning services.

Some of the women, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) to commemorate the 2025 Safe motherhood day, explained their predicament in accessing free family planning services in the state.

Zaliha Usman, 25, said she became aware of the family planning services during her previous ante-natal days and she got her husband’s consent to obtain the services.

“Since we made the decision about five months ago, my husband and I have been checking many facilities in Dutse to access the services but we were told that there are no commodities,” she told NAN.

Madaniya Habibu, 26, said she needs to space properly to take care of her five children, yet she was asked to buy commodities before being attended to at a facility.

“Please the government should assist us by giving us the commodities which were earlier distributed for free at the hospitals,” she said.

A service provider at Limachi primary healthcare, Amina Adamu, said there was an increasing number of women willing to begin family planning but most of them wants free services.

“We usually ask them to purchase the commodities and access the free services at the facility, but they usually grumble that government has been providing the commodity free of charge,” she said,

She added that many men in remote areas of Jigawa had allowed their wives to access the services especially with the economic downtown, yet they rely solely on free commodities.

Ankale Kongude, The Challenge Initiative (TCI) Programme Manager in Jigawa, said that the pressing issue concerning family planning in the state is commodity procurement.

Mr Kongude said the last time the state procured commodities was in 2022, adding that there was budget allocation for the commodity in 2023 and 2024.

He explained that the goal of TCI in Jigawa is to establish a good culture of implementation, efficiency, sustainability and self-reliance.

He, therefore, called on the state to ensure sustainability of its project when TCI finally exits, in order to sustain quality health for women and children.

Uwani Abdullahi, coordinator of a Community Based organisation, “Matan Karkara,” also highlighted the need to give women support in family planning.

Mrs Abdullahi explained that through their community advocacy, they realise how women with many children battle to shape their children’s moral conduct.

The women, she said, suffer a lot to provide good upbringing to their children and need enough time to nurse them before any addition.

She appealed to the government to strengthen the services and make them free for women to access, in order to have a more meaningful future for the communities and families.

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NAN reports that efforts to get the views of the state government on the provision of free family planning services for women in the state failed.

The National Safe Motherhood Day is observed annually on 11 April to raise awareness on significant risks faced by women during pregnancy and childbirth.

It is an initiative of the United Nations launched in 1987 to ensure that women go through pregnancy and childbirth safely and it’s reinforced by maternal mortality reduction in the MDGs of 2000-2015.
(NAN)