Follow Us on Google
From Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Center for Family and Reproductive Health Support Initiative (CFRHSI) Benue State has called on the State government to ensure the timely release of budgetary allocation for family planning (FP) programs to ensure access to quality and voluntary FP services for women in the state.
Spokesperson of CFRHSI, Mr. Lazarus Mom made the call during the launch of Benue State 2021 Family Planning (FP) Budget Performance Scorecard held at the Metropolitan Hotels in Makurdi, the state capital on Thursday.
While commending the state government for finally approving the creation of budget line for family planning in the state, Mom however lamented that up till now, the 20 million Naira that was budgeted for FP for the year 2022 was yet to be released as at September.
“Until last year, there was no budget line for FP in Benue. Before then, whatever allocation that was meant for FP was grouped under reproductive health through the Directorate of Public Health under the Ministry of Health and Human Services.
Mom recalled that for eight years, CFRHSI consistently advocated for the creation of a budget line for FP in the state until it was finally created in 2021 as a stand-alone budget line different from reproductive health.
He commended the state government for taking the bold step by creating the budget line for FP but appealed that it should be backed up with time release of funds.
On his part, representative of Pathfinder, Nuhu Yusuf stressed the need to engage government, decision makers as well as the media to ensure the success and workability of the scorecard.
He enjoined the group to continue to advocate for the timely release of budgetary allocation for FP programs in the state.
