Niger state Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Umaru Bago, has directed the immediate employment of 1,000 medical workers to fill the wide gap existing in availability of personnel in both the tertiary and secondary health sectors of the state.

This is just as more women have embraced the family planning in 10 local governments of the state.

The state Commissioner for Primary Healthcare, Dr. Ibrahim Dangana, disclosed this in Minna at the weekend while speaking at the dissemination meeting of Niger State Family Planning/DMPA-SC performance of the Delivering Innovation in Self-Care (DISC).

Dangana said the administration of Governor Bago, after giving autonomy to the Primary Health Ministry, has vowed to make the ministry functional with adequate staff and equipment because it is the health facilities closest to the people.

Represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Abdullahi Imam, the commissioner applauded the efforts of DISC for carrying family planning campaign to the rural communities in the 10 local governments of the state, saying that the Programme is being carried out in conjunction with the state government.

He said the state supports any family planning method or solutions that can improve the lives of our women, adding that the essence of family planning is to allow women to space their children and this does not prevent them from having as many children as they desire to have.

The commissioner said government had been able to, a large extent, succeeded in convincing the beneficiaries that family planning is not government objective to control population adding that the government is only advocating for families to procreate responsibly adding that this is why many have keyed into the project and even self inject system.

The Country Social Behavioral Change and Communication Coordinator for the DISC project in the Society for Family Health, Mr. Micheal Titus, disclosed that the uptake of the self-injectable contraceptive method grew from 13 per cent in 2021 to 52 per cent in 2024.

According to him, “Over three per cent growth in self-injectable rate in the state shows 52 of every 100 women who opted for DMPA-SV as their method of choice are self-injecting successfully under the supervision of the health provider.

Titus said the method has given the needed privacy to the women in taking the contraceptives and save them from traveling long distances to be administered the injection. (THISDAY)

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