Contraception Ambassador Advocate Universal Access

Photo: Adebisi Adenipekun

Adebisi Adenipekun

Adebisi Adenipekun, an ambassador of the 2016 World Contraception Day has called the government and other stakeholders to invest in access to contraception across the country. He mentioned reduced maternal mortality rate as one of the benefits the country will drive it there can be a huge investment on access contraception in Nigeria.

According to the World Bank Indicators, the population of female in Nigeria was 49.09 percent in 2014. Women form significant part the workforce in the country. For instance, Nigerian women contribute almost 70 percent of the agricultural workforce, 50 percent of animal husbandry-related activities and 60 percent of food processing. A nation in dire need of economic stability as ours cannot afford to allow women die preventable pregnancy-related deaths. As of 2015, Nigeria still has maternal mortality ratio as high as 814 per 100;000 live births. This makes Nigeria one of the unsafe countries for women to give birth in the world. Access to contraception can significantly reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies and unsafe abortion which are significant causes of death among women, especially young people.

Adenipekun also noted that access to contraception enables people to plan their families and make informed decisions such as additional educational pursuit and career development. “Appropriate child-spacing culture improves the chances that a woman will participate meaningfully in public life (including paid employment) without any detrimental effect on the home and family structure. Therefore, women can earn more and support their family as it has been reported that women invest as much as 90 percent of their income on their families compared to 35 percent for men. Also, evidence suggests that children with fewer siblings tend to stay in school longer than those with many siblings “

“It is important for our country at this point to chart a course for sustainable development and growth. How do we as a country respond to the imminent population explosion? We need to be more proactive at this stage of our national development. While there is an urgent need for pragmatic infrastructural and economic development strategies, it is important that every pregnancy is wanted and every family can provide and support their children. It, therefore, makes economic sense to facilitate universal access to contraception and promote population control.”, he said.

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