The wife of Ekiti State Governor, Bisi Fayemi, has called on government to remove taxation on sanitary pads and engage in its local production to make it less expensive.
She said this on Thursday at the inauguration of project P4iGC3, Pad for Improved Girl Child Education, by Balm in Gilead Foundation for Sustainable Development, BIGIF in Ado-Ekiti.
Mrs Fayemi explained that such government’s policy was needed to promote the girl-child upbringing and keep them in school.
“In rural areas, women do not have access to sanitary products. It is safe to say that one in every three girls in the country cannot afford safe and hygienic sanitary pads for proper menstrual hygiene management” she said.
She also called for the sensitisation of adolescent girl child on menstrual health management to prevent environmental hazards associated with indiscriminate disposition of used sanitary pads.
The wife of the governor remarked that relevant authorities should include girl-child education and training in their responsibilities to reduce the risk of getting them impregnated while in school.
The Commissioner for Education, Science and Technology, Dr Olabimpe Aderiye, said that the initiative would further ensure the encouragement of the girl-child in school.
Earlier, the Founder of the BIGIF initiative, Tumininu Akerele, had said that the project aimed at ending period poverty and promoting shared prosperity of health rights toward improved girl-child education in Southwest Nigeria.
She said that the project aimed at given out free sanitary pads to girl – child in schools, saying that it targeted 3, 000 girls across secondary schools in four states namely: Ekiti, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo State.
Dignitaries at the events include: the Head of Service in the state, Mrs Peju Babafemi; the in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Olabimpe Aderiye.
NAN
