No fewer than 1,950 people have registered for family planning services at the Okelele Primary Healthcare Centre in Ilorin between January and August.

This followed the intervention of the Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI).

Hajiya Fatima Kuranga, the Head of Health Department, Ilorin East Local Government Council, disclosed this on Tuesday in Ilorin.

She said that the number of beneficiaries during  the eight month period under review increased considerably when compared with the about 680 recorded in 2012.

Kuranga explained that NURHI had helped in training and retraining of health care personnel and family planning supervisors.

She also stressed that NURHI had created awareness at the community level,  adding that this had made residents of the area to embrace the free service being provided.

"NURHI has given us family planning providers and we have registered a lot of people who have accepted it through the intervention of NURHI."

"We have also carried out  advocacy visits at the local government level where residents were sensitised on the importance of family planning," she said.
The council, she said, was augmenting family planning services with money on monthly basis to buy some consumables.

Kuranga, however, noted that religious and traditional beliefs were some of the challenges facing the scheme.

According to her, family planning is safe and has no side effects if done in a registered centre.