MSI, Benue deepen partnership to improve reproductive healthcare at N/Central AGM

By Tolu Temidire

MSI Reproductive Choices Nigeria and the Benue State Government have reaffirmed their commitment to deepening collaboration to improve access to reproductive health and family planning services and strengthen healthcare delivery across the state.

The commitment was made in Makurdi at the 2026 Annual General Meeting, AGM, of MSI Reproductive Choices, North Central Region, where MSI Nigeria management and staff reviewed the organisation’s performance and discussed strategies for greater impact.

Speaking at the meeting, the Country Director of MSI Nigeria Reproductive Choices, Emmanuel Ajah, said stronger partnerships with government remained critical to expanding access to reproductive healthcare and ensuring that women and girls could make informed choices about their reproductive health.

Ajah said the AGM, themed “Growing Together: Accountability and Teamwork for Greater Impact,” was designed to review the North Central region’s year-to-date performance, confront operational and human-resource challenges, reinforce integrity and ethical standards and develop strategies for sustainable impact.

He disclosed that MSI Nigeria, which commenced operations in the country in 2009 and in Benue State in 2012, currently supports more than 6,000 public primary healthcare facilities nationwide and operates across all 36 states.

According to Ajah, the organisation remains committed to its mission of “children by choice, not chance” and vision of “a world in which every day is wanted,” particularly through expanding access to family planning and reproductive health services for women and girls.

He disclosed that MSI Nigeria served 4.6 million Nigerian women with long-acting reversible contraception in 2025 alone, describing the figure as an indication of the organisation’s extensive reach and continuing commitment to reproductive healthcare.

Ajah said the organisation would continue to work with the Benue State Government and other stakeholders to strengthen existing health systems and improve access to quality services, particularly for underserved communities.

Declaring the meeting open, the Deputy Governor of Benue State, Dr Sam Ode, represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Deborah Aber, said the partnership with MSI Nigeria and other development partners must be aligned with the priorities of the state government.

Ode said the theme of the AGM was consistent with the administration of Governor Hyacinth Alia’s emphasis on accountability, teamwork and measurable development outcomes.

He said, “Partnerships must be aligned with government priorities, strengthen public systems and, most importantly, deliver measurable results for our people.”

The Deputy Governor said the state government remained committed to accessible and quality healthcare as a critical component of human capital development.

He disclosed that 98 primary healthcare centres had been targeted for rehabilitation and revitalisation under the IMPACT Project, but stressed that improving healthcare required more than renovating facilities.

“A renovated PHC must have trained personnel, commodities, equipment, functional referral systems and sustainable financing. Our objective must therefore be to move from rehabilitating health facilities to building a resilient health system that produces measurable health outcomes,” he said.

Ode urged MSI Nigeria, government agencies and other development partners to assess their interventions based on actual health outcomes rather than merely counting trainings conducted, meetings held or people reached.

He also called on the Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Paul Ogwuche, to work with the ministry, its agencies and development partners to institutionalise a year-on-year health-sector performance briefing.

According to him, the briefing should demonstrate how government and partner investments were contributing to the reduction of maternal mortality and improvement of other priority health indicators.

“This is not about who takes credit. It is about collective accountability for results. It should help us understand what is working, where the gaps remain and where government and partners should direct resources for greater impact,” he said.

The Deputy Governor further urged MSI Nigeria to deepen its partnership with health training institutions in the state, saying stronger pre-service training would complement continuous in-service capacity development for health workers.

He said institutions producing nurses, midwives, community health workers and other health professionals should be strengthened to ensure that essential competencies were acquired before the workers entered the health system.

Ode also urged MSI Nigeria to pay greater attention to Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and host communities, noting that displacement created additional barriers to maternal and reproductive healthcare and increased pressure on already stretched health facilities.

“We do not want parallel systems. We want stronger government systems capable of serving IDPs, host communities and the wider population sustainably,” he said.

In his keynote address, the Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Paul Ogwuche, said reproductive health and family planning were integral to Benue’s broader health and development agenda.

Ogwuche linked reproductive healthcare to maternal and child health, women’s empowerment, economic productivity and universal health coverage, stressing that government could not achieve the objectives alone.

He said, “Government cannot achieve these objectives alone. Progress requires coordinated action, shared responsibility and sustained collaboration among government institutions, development partners, implementing organisations, professional bodies, traditional institutions and the communities we serve.”

The commissioner said the partnership between Benue State and MSI Nigeria could help align interventions with government priorities, strengthen existing systems and ensure that investments produced measurable benefits.

He urged participants to concentrate on service delivery, community engagement, commodity security, quality of care, data use, workforce capacity and sustainable financing.

Also speaking, the Director-General of the Bureau for International Cooperation and Development, Dr Leo-Angelo Viashima, commended MSI Nigeria for its interventions in Benue State.

Viashima also praised the Alia administration for creating what he described as an enabling environment for international development partners and organisations to operate fully in the state.

The MSI Regional Manager, North Central, Patience Otache, who welcomed participants as host, urged stakeholders to speak openly, learn from one another and develop strategies for stronger results before the end of the year.