Once again, the Nigerian government appears to have fallen short in prioritising Family Planning (FP) programmes in its proposed 2024 budget, potentially causing a setback to the country’s aspirations to achieve a 27 per cent Modern Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (MCPR) by 2030.
Despite the commitment to allocate at least one per cent of the national annual health budget to family planning, an analysis of the 2024 health budget shows that only N2.2 billion has been earmarked for FP programmes, representing 0.16 per cent of the overall health budget.
Although the allocation to FP in 2024 is better than the last four years, the low budgetary allocation raises concerns about Nigeria’s ability to meet the FP2030 targets.