By; ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna
As part of measures to ensure availability of Family Planning commodities in Kaduna, the state on Tuesday, announced the domestication of the National Guidelines for Procurement of Family Planning Commodities.
This was disclosed by the Commissioner, Planning and Budget Commission, Umma Aboki, at the State Level Dissemination of National Guidelines for State-Funded Procurement of FP Commodities, supported by UNFPA.
She explained that the National Guidelines was developed to guide states that have expressed willingness to begin state level procurement of family planning commodities that will help address the incessant stock out of the commodities in their state.
“FP commodities have always been procured centrally through the National Contraceptives Basket Fund which was established in 2011 for the procurement of contraceptives with the support from donor agencies and UNFPA as the procurement agent.
“However, Nigeria faces uncertainty on the sustainability. This uncertainty is largely attributed to the dwindling financial resources, donor fatigue, untimely and often incomplete release of Federal Government Counterpart Funding.
“The annual funding gap analysis from 2016 to 2022 has shown variance between funding requirement and funding commitment leading to a huge funding gap. In 2016, the funding requirement was $19.6million dollars and the funding commitment was $7million dollars which created a funding gap of $12.6million dollars.” the commissioner said.
Mrs. Aboki, noted that the year 2022 has the highest funding requirement of $35.6 million and the highest financial gap of $29.7 million. The total funding requirement from 2016 to 2022, according to her is $171.9 million and total financial gap is $203.09 million.
“The risk of a widening funding gap remains high for FP Basket Fund. This is due to the dependent nature on Donor Funding which is becoming unsustainable. This assertion poses a potential threat to the state and country at large in terms of population explosion where birth rate is uncontrolled, high maternal mortality rate, teenage pregnancies and obstetric fistula.
“The state government under the able leadership of our able Governor, expressed its willingness and readiness to begin procurement of the FP commodities to compliment National efforts.
“This singular effort led to the development of the National Guidelines to guide States who also wish to toe the line. And today we are here to unveil the document that was developed with the participation of key stakeholders and support from UNFP.” She added.
The commissioner, commended the state and the UNFPA for making it possible, saying, “I appreciate the Governor, His Excellency, Malam Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai, for approving the domestication of the guidelines in the state.
“I would like to also express our appreciations to the UNFPA for their immeasurable support to Kaduna State through diverse programmes and for supporting this process to a logical conclusion”.
