The family planning initiative, funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Nigerian Urban Health Initiative (NURHI), has rehabilitated and equipped the family planning unit of Child Welfare Clinic, Olomowewe community, Offa, Kwara state.

The family planning initiative was established to reduce supply and demand barriers of family planning services in urban Nigeria.

Speaking at the inauguration of the rehabilitated clinic in Offa, the Kwara State team leader of NURHI, Alhaji Aliyu Sadiq, said the organisation carried out re-roofing, tiling and renovation of two toilets of the clinic to serve the public better.

The team leader said the organisation also provided medical equipment such as autoclave, steriliser, screen, weighing scales, medicine cupboards, among others.

He further said that the organisation would address the issue of serviceable equipment and hospital furniture and storerooms, adding that government and donors also provided hospitals with equipment without knowing the actual needs, thereby overloading such hospitals.

Also speaking at the event, NURHI deputy director, Dr Bola Ogunsemiju, said there was more to family planning than child spacing.

Dr Ogunsemiju, who said campaign and advocacy activities of NURHI had helped to reduce child and maternal mortality and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, added that the programme was also aimed at increasing the use of modern family planning methods among the urban poor in Nigeria.

In his speech on the occasion, the Commissioner for Local Government, Chieftaincy Affairs and Community Development, Alhaji Abdullahi Umar, said pressure on urban health infrastructure that could lead to system overload would be avoided when many of such health care facilities are rehabilitated across communities.