Nigeria launches inter-ministerial platform to boost family planning, sustainable development
By Ojoma Akor
The Federal Government has inaugurated an inter-ministerial coordination platform to accelerate Nigeria’s FP2030 commitments, strengthen family planning services, and advance the country’s human capital and sustainable development agenda.
Speaking during the inauguration ceremony in Abuja, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, said there is a need to situate the platform within the overarching vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu: a future for the country that is prosperous, peaceful, and people-oriented.
He highlighted that to achieve that vision, the country’s population is the greatest asset.
He said, “Our people are the most important asset that we have. We have 230 million Nigerians. We are a fast-growing youthful population. We add between eight and 10 million Nigerians every year. That’s an asset.”
The minister said that by 2050, the country is estimated to have about 450 to 500 million people, adding, “Now that asset has to be productive to meet up with that vision of a prosperous, peaceful, people-oriented country.”
He said that to actualize that mission, everything must be done to realize the dividends for the population and make it a quality, productive population.
He said, “If we fail in doing that, that population that we will have can easily become a liability. We want a population structure that has less dependency, that has more productive folks that are contributing to the economic development here in our country.”
Prof. Pate further said that each federal government entity on the platform has a clearly defined responsibility.
He said, “The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has a responsibility of setting health system priorities in the health sector. Also, all the social sectors. Improving access to essential services, promoting equity, and ensuring better health and social welfare outcomes for all years.
“While the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning is primarily responsible for driving national development planning, overall investment is driven by human capital, efficient resource allocation, and strong linkages among sectoral priorities to achieve national development objectives. The Ministry of Finance is focused on enhancing the productivity of our economy, allowing those investments to thrive.”
The minister also announced plans for the local production of family planning commodities.
He said the pharmaceutical entity will be the first not only in Nigeria but also in sub-Saharan Africa.
Coordinating Minister of Finance and Economy, Mr. Taiwo Oyedele, said the platform reflects the Federal Government’s recognition that improving health outcomes requires sustained cross-sector collaboration.
According to him, family planning is not only a public health intervention but also an important investment in Nigeria’s human capital, economic resilience, and sustainable development.
He said, “Ensuring that individuals and families can make informed reproductive health choices contributes to healthier mothers and children, improved educational outcomes, increased productivity, and stronger communities.”
Oyedele said that the Federal Government remains committed to building a healthy, productive, and prosperous nation, noting that this objective can only be achieved through coordinated policies, effective institutions, and prudent investment in sectors that directly improve the quality of life of the citizens.
He enjoined all participating institutions to remain committed to their shared vision by strengthening policy coordination, enhancing accountability, leveraging innovation, and ensuring that reliable data and evidence guide decisions.
He added that through collective effort and sustained commitment, “we can accelerate progress towards improved reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health outcomes while advancing Nigeria’s broader development aspirations.”
The Managing Director, FP2030 West and Central Africa Office, Dr Alain Damiba, said the government’s decision to establish an inter-ministerial coordination platform recognizes that better outcomes require collaboration across government, development partners and communities.
He said it creates an opportunity to align priorities, improve the use of evidence, strengthen accountability, reduce fragmentation, and ensure that resources reinforce rather than duplicate one another.
“FP2030 sees the Platform as much more than a meeting mechanism. It can become a vehicle for shared purpose and shared accountability: a place where ministries identify common outcomes, align their comparative strengths, follow progress and solve problems together,” he said.
He said Nigeria’s leadership is especially important because of the country’s scale and influence.
He also said when Nigeria demonstrates that family planning, health, and human capital can be advanced through high-level multisectoral leadership, other countries will pay attention.
The platform, he said, has the potential to become not only a national mechanism but also a model for how governments can organize themselves around the realities of people’s lives.
Also speaking, the chairman of the National Population Commission, Dr. Aminu Yusuf, explained that when couples and families can make informed, voluntary choices about their reproductive lives, “we see healthier mothers and children, better educational outcomes for girls, more empowered women, and a demographic structure that can genuinely drive national productivity. This is precisely why the commission places such high value on this platform, and why we welcome the inter-ministerial coordination it proposes.”
He also pointed out that the foundation for achieving all the lofty goals still lies in having accurate demographic data, noting that this could only be achieved through a reliable national census, which is now overdue.