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ABEOKUTA, OGUN STATE, NIGERIA – The Ogun State House of Assembly Committee on Health has expressed its support for the Family Health Initiative Ogun (FAHIO), a family planning advocacy group.
The Assembly committee assured the group that it would work towards increasing government funding for the provision of family planning kits and consumables to health facilities across the state.
This commitment was made during a recent visit by a FAHIO delegation, led by its Chairperson, Mrs. Oluwakemi Balogun, to the Assembly Complex in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta. The delegation emphasized the importance of family planning in improving the health and well-being of women, children, and adolescents across Ogun State.
Mrs. Balogun, along with other members of the group, urged the state’s three arms of government, as well as public-spirited individuals, to provide greater support for reproductive health initiatives.
She stressed the need for adequate funding and logistics to ensure that maternal, child, and adolescent healthcare services are fully supported in the state.
She stated that funds release for family planning programmes were inadequate, which occasioned insufficient family planning kits and consumables in public health facilities in the state, calling on the state government to prioritize the health of women of childbearing age, to enable them have access to free and qualitative family planning services.
According to Balogun, “In recent times, more families and women have realized the need for family planning or child spacing due to its derivable benefits.
”However, it is important for the state government to ensure proper budgeting and prompt release of funds for procuring kits, consumables and other necessary items that would enable women to get free and quality family planning services services in all government health facilities across the state’’.
Responding, Chairman, State House of Assembly Committee on Health, Hon. Wahab Haruna, said the Assembly Lawmakers placed premium on the health of residents, noting that several worthwhile legislations had been made to strengthen the health sector of the state.
Hon. Haruna, and other members of the committee, which include, Hons. Tella Babatunde, Yusuf Sherif, Lawal Samusideen, Fola Salami, Odunuga Kaka, Yusuf Sheriff and Hon. Babatunde emphasised the need for the present administration to increase funding for the health sector, particularly in the area of family planning services, in order to improve maternal and child healthcare, as well as increase life expectancy.
The Committee Chairman, Hon. Haruna assured the group of the assembly’s support in promoting family planning and other healthcare programmes in the state, urging health workers to complement the state government’s efforts in the delivery of quality health services to the people.
