By Hassan Zaggi
The inability of the Federal Government to address and overcome Family Planning (FP) commodity crisis will have huge negative consequences for Nigeria. The effect will negatively impact health, economy, and national security.
The Programme Delivery Lead and Francophone Liaison of the African Health Budget Network (AHBN), Amina Haladu Mohammed, disclosed this at the 9th annual conference of the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ), in Abuja, recently.
According to her, the commodity crisis if allowed the linger, will further result in overwhelmed health system, increased child poverty, more unsafe abortions and more unintended pregnancies.
“These issues will hinder Nigeria’s demographic dividend and create instability,” Amina stressed.
While commenting on the devastating impact of underfunding for family planning commodities, she noted that: “The reality of under-funding in family planning has dire consequences. In 2024 alone, the funding gap led to tragic outcomes that underscored the urgent need for action.”
Amina revealed that in 2024, there were over 800,000 unintended pregnancies resulting from inadequate access to family planning and that over 300,000 unsafe abortions took place, which are direct consequence of lack of access to contraception.
She disclosed that over 10,000 women’s lives were lost due to preventable complications and lack of basic contraceptive methods and over $200 million lost health savings which is the economic benefits that could have been realized with proper investment.
Reacting to the inconsistent funding of family planning commodities, the AHBN Programme Lead, said: “Nigeria has a history of struggling with timely and full release of family planning funds. This inconsistency has weakened procurement cycles, made forecasting unpredictable, and led to widespread stockouts.”
In 2022-2023, she lamented, Nigeria missed United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) Supplies Match Fund, losing approximately $1.5 million each year and that in 2024, the country lost approval for a second tranche of $6 million worth of commodities due to unmet commitments.”
She regretted that there was no federal budget for contraceptive procurement in 2025, a stark departure from previous years and that the UNFPA Basket Fund-the $4 million annual commitment to the UNFPA basket fund was not reflected, hindering pooled procurement.
Amina, however, warned that donor confidence has been weaken as, according to her, failure to release committed funds jeopardizes donor partner contributions and future support.
