Rivers State Government has said that the family planning indices in the state have continued to improve over the past three years.
She stated this during the Challenge Initiative Project Dissemination Meeting in collaboration with the Rivers State Government in Port Harcourt, last Friday.
Banigo, who described the state government’s partnership with the Challenge Initiative as delightful, disclosed that the State Chief Executive, Chief Nyesom Wike, as a health-friendly governor invests huge resources in the health sector, adding that he also ensures that other sectors are taken care of to ensure, our society continues to develop and attend to those expectations that we all have as people living, doing business and working in Rivers State.
According to the deputy governor, who is a National and State Family Planning Champion, they are committed to creating a social environment, for the increased demand for and to promote the uptake of family planning and reproductive health services, while advocating for the prioritization of proven evidence-based family planning and reproductive health interventions.
She said, “Nigeria currently is faced with a population growing faster than the GDP of the nation, which obviously causes overall low, standard of living than we expect to have, noting that we are faced with issues of herdsmen and farmers further destroying the livelihood of our people leading to poverty”.
The deputy governor congratulated the Challenge Initiative for a successful end of project and project dissemination meeting.
In their remarks, Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Health, Dr. Utchay Ndidi Chikanele; and the Permanent Secretary of the Rivers State Primary Health Care Management Board, Dr. Agriye Harry, said the partnership engagement between the state and TCI has been synergistic, noting that they have pursued a culture of sustainable service delivery, while demonstrating the return of investments put into reproductive health service delivery.
In his goodwill message, the Director of the Challenge Initiative in Nigeria, Dr. Victor Igaro, who spoke through the Deputy Director, Dr. Lekan Ajilola, said the goal of TCI was to work with the state government to achieve self-reliance, scale up high impact interventions in family planning and adolescent health and ensure the state government, sustains their health system and increase access to modern contraception, stressing that Rivers State has performed well in all of these.
The Chairman of the Family Planning Advocacy Working Group in the State, Prof. Cosmos Enyindah, presented a keynote address on the theme: “Journey toward State Government Self- Reliance and Chronicles of Impact at scale for Reproductive Health in Rivers State”.
Presentations of awards to the deputy governor and other dignitaries, goodwill messages, as well as cultural displays were highlights of the occasion.