Gombe first to contribute to fund basket of FP commodities, says PM TCI
The Gombe State Programme Manager of The Challenge Initiative (TCI), Yakubu Usman Abubakar, says Gombe state is first in the country to launch the National Guideline on State Funded Procurement of Family Planning Commodities.
Abubakar who stated this in an interview with PERISCOPE NIGERIA said Gombe is also the first to contribute to the fund basket.
He said at the national level there has been a basket fund where federal government and some partners contribute funds for the Procurement of childbirth spacing Commodities and from there they distribute to the whole country.
Abubakar said the formation of the quideline followed increasing demand of service access, hence resources at the national were over stretched and available fund could no longer meet the increasing demands, therefore the federal government decided that the respective state governments should also contribute.
“So they developed a quideline on State Funded Procurement of Family Planning Commodities,Gombe state is the first to take the quideline and launch it.UNFPA is responsible for the Procurement of the Commodities because of the tax relief and issue of protocol .They have international connection to source for the Commodities,They have been Procuring for the Nation and now the state should be contributing to the same basket but whatever you contribute, will come to your state and national basket will still come to the state inform of their own share so that is the giant stride that has been made by the Gombe state government and it is appreciable,” Abubakar explained.
The Programme Manager also spoke on the link between childbirth spacing and HIV prevention saying prevention of mother to child transmission of hiv could also be achieved through child birthspacing practice.
Abubakar said, “When we come to PMTCT, there are four stages, first is prevention of Hiv among all women of reproductive age,this can be done through the use of childbirth spacing methods, then the second is positive woman who do not want pregnancy.
“She can prevent unwanted pregnancy by opting for childbirth spacing but if she wants to have babies,she will be introduced to PMTCT services thereby preventing the baby from getting infected by HIV.”
