Tag: Niger State

•Women farmers count losses as food prices crash in Niger State

There has been joy and gladness in the hearts of ordinary Nigerians that food prices have reduced by more than half for some months, making it easy for some people to stock up. However, while the citizens are happy, it is a different story for the farmers, majority of who store grains to sell when the price is right. For many farmers, the season of plenty has become a season of loss. JUSTINA ASISHANA visited some local governments across Niger State to document how the drop in food prices has affected farmers, especially smallholder women farmers.

Cross Niger State, harvest season and storage of food produce usually bring joy. But this year, it is a different story. Women who once celebrated full barns now count their losses as they lament that bumper harvests no longer translate into profit, with the prices of crops like maize, rice and beans, which were once seen as gold, having crashed. These food products that once fetched thousands per measure now sell for a fraction of their former price.

Women farmers like Jummai Makama and Aishatu Bawa in Paikoro, Priscilla Sado and Agnes Aynadanyi in Gurara and Halima Mohammed in Agaie stored grains from their last harvest, hoping for better prices, but were disappointed when it came time to sell their grains.

Prices of maize dropped from N1,000 per measure to as low as N250-N400; beans fell from N150,000 per bag to N70,000, with a measure selling between N1,500 to N1,700 as against N2,800 to N3,000 that it was sold early in the year and the year before. This development makes farmers who waited to sell their farm produce get stuck with unsold produce, while those who sold early barely broke even.

“As at this time last year, a bag of beans sold between N130,000 to N180,000 depending on the type that you have. But this year, the highest we can sell our beans is N80,000, which is not encouraging, not after buying fertiliser and chemicals very costly and not getting anything for your effort in the farm.

“Buying fertiliser at a higher cost, and after harvesting, you look at the price you sold it and you will know that you did not gain. Most of our produce is still on ground and we are looking for buyers to buy it at the rate we want to sell it that would be okay for us,” Aishatu Mohammed, a multiple crop farmer in Paikoro said.

Speaking with a tone of resignation, she said that though she is planting new crops, she does it reluctantly because she still has a lot of her harvest unsold with no hope of the price rising again.

“I am still praying that the prices will go up a little, at least to enable me get the amount of fertilizer and chemicals I spent during the planting season. I sincerely pray that next year, the price will increase more than this year.”

After spending 25 years in farming, Talma Baba, a rice farmer in Gurara Local Government Area, is taking the price fluctuations and uncertainty philosophically. She believes that it is the will of God for food prices to either go up or down, and since she does not lose too much, she will keep farming with the hope that her family will not be hungry.

“Everything I do about my farming depends on God, and if God says the price will go up, it is God’s will. If the price reduces, I will still farm and sell. I will not get discouraged,” she said.

Talma said she did not lose much in terms of selling her last year harvest as she was part of the people who sold theirs at the beginning of the year when the prices were still high.

“At the beginning of this year, the food prices were still high and that was when I sold some of my produce, so I did not lose that much. It was after the middle of the year that the prices began going down, so I can say I did not lose too much.”

The data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirms what farmers are experiencing. While food prices were still higher early this year, the monthly increases slowed down until September 2025, which saw the first actual month-to-month drop in food prices in over a decade. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria’s food prices showed a general slowdown in increases compared to 2024.

Food inflation measures how much food costs have risen, compared to the same time last year. According to NBS, year-on-year food inflation rates dropped over the months in 2025, though actual month-to-month price reductions happened starting in September

Based on NBS Consumer Price Index (CPI), the year started with January showing 26.08 percentage change in food prices compared to the same month in the previous year while in September 2025, the food inflation rate showed 16.87 per cent as against 37.77 per cent in September 2024.

October and November data have not been released by NBS as at the time of writing this report

Fertiliser now costs almost more than the farm

The cost of farm inputs like fertiliser, herbicides, chemicals and seedlings continues to increase annually, with no hope of farmers, especially women farmers in the rural areas, getting access to government-subsidised inputs. Several of the farmers say that they have to rely on fowl or cow dung and refuse as fertiliser since they cannot afford buying fertiliser. This in turn does not give the yield they expect. Farmers say that fertilizer that once sold between N18,000 and N30,000 is now ₦60,000, and that is if you find it.

Habiba Abdullahi, a rice farmer in Paikoro, lamented that her challenge since she started farming 10 years ago has been accessing fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide, and this has reduced her produce yield annually.  She pointed out that since she started farming, she has not had access to government-subsidized fertilizer, adding that last year when the Smallholder Women Farmers (SWOFON) were promised 300 bags of fertilizer by the government, they were only able to access 60 bags, which she said were not enough to go round members across the state.

“When I started farming, my land was still fertile, so I was able to harvest 120 bags of rice. But as the years go by, the harvest has reduced drastically, and last year, I was able to harvest just 30 bags of rice.

“My major challenge is that I don’t have fertilizer, no chemicals and no financial assistance anywhere, which made my harvest very low last year.

“This year, I don’t know how many bags I will harvest. As a solution, I use fowl poop as fertilizer in my farm. Then for the chemical, I buy a little amount and mix with the fowl poo, which I use in the farm.

“Before, the government price of fertilizer was N18,000 to N20,000. But now, we do not even see the government price, so we buy in the market where it is sold from N60,000 and above.

“And a farmer cannot just use one bag of fertilizer. To see any result, we usually use two to three bags, and that is because the farm is not very big.”

Though Habiba sold her produce early in the year before food prices went down, she worries over the price of rice which is currently being planted and would soon be harvested.

She said:  “I have fears over the price of rice for next year. I only pray that the prices improve before we harvest this year’s rice and sell them.”

Some of the women farmers accuse politicians of hijacking subsidized fertilizers meant for them as several of them noticed that the fertilisers sold by these politicians are usually cheaper than those sold in the market.

According to them, the politicians hijack the inputs and because they are not real farmers, and end up selling it less than the real market rates to the real farmers.

“We do not get our fertiliser from the government. We get it from those who sell it in the market. All the fertilizer shared by the government belongs to politicians. The common man buys from the black market where a bag now costs N50,000 to N60,000. Before, we were getting it at N25,000 for government price. The politicians sell to them, and they sell to us.

“Last year, the governor directed that women farmers should be given 600 bags of fertilizer, out of which 300 were supposed to be for Smallholder Women Farmers of Nigeria (SWOFON). But because of the politicians involved, we only got 68 bags, which was not enough to go round.

“But this year, we did not even see one bag. This is sad because four, five years ago, they gave these fertilizers to us for free, but now, nothing. How can the government go for a year without giving subsidised fertilizer to farmers?”

Agnes Aynadanyi in Gurara LGA lamented that after using fertilizers for planting, she did not get the money back to even pay for the input

 “We brought medicines and fertilizer to use while planting, and most of us did not even get the money for the inputs.

“This year, one mudu of corn was sold for N300. Last year, we sold it at N1000 to N2000.  I had to sell mine like that because I needed money. No gain at all.

“Sometimes, I buy chemicals for N65,000 and fertilizer for N97,000. I buy 10 bags of fertilizer because if you did not put it much, it will not yield much. I did not get the money back.

“With this new planting season, I just managed to start farming.”

Pricilla Sado, who farms groundnut, melon, rice, beans and cassava in Agaie, lamented the high cost of renting farm implements every year. “This year, I hired a tractor to work for me in my farm. I paid N70,000 because my cousin knows who had the tractor. But last year, the person who did it for me collected N110,000 for just clearing and tilling the ground.

“We do not have access to government owned tractors. We hear that they bring it but it is the politicians that hijack it. It is the same thing with fertilizer.”

Jummai also lamented how the tractors were being hoarded by the Niger State Agricultural and Mechanisation Development Agency (NAMDA), which claims that it does not have any, despite the ones seen in its offices in Minna.

“We need modern and women friendly planting equipment which will be easy to use and faster. We do not have any tractor in our local government; not one in Paikoro.

“If you have a big farm, you will have to go and rent it from private individuals. We haven’t seen any from the government here. In the whole local government, we don’t have a tractor. The government keeps saying it shared tractors but it is all politics.

“Even now, in NAMDA in Minna, there are a lot of tractors, but they did not share it. The farming season for 2025 is already gone. Maybe they will keep it for 2026 against the 2027 elections.

“The NAMDA office has several tractors and no single one has been given to us. They keep saying they don’t have. They will say they have it but at the grassroots, we have not seen it.

“The products are there but we do not see them at the grassroots. They most probably sell them to the politicians who use them for private businesses.”

For Fatima Matyaki in Katcha LGA, she has entered into an agreement with the people who sell fertilizer where she buys on credit and pays back after she harvests her crops. Because of the need to pay off the debt, she had to sell her produce quickly. So, she did not save a lot of grains like her fellow farmers.

She lamented, however, that from her last harvest, she was barely able to meet up with the payment of the fertilizer and have some gain, because she sold the produce at very low price than she budgeted to sell it.

“But I just had to sell it, because if I had waited longer, the fertilizer seller would be on my neck. So I could only afford to store little that would be enough for my family to feed on. So I am even discouraged to farm this year”, she said.

Storage: Between spoilage and poison

Several of the farmers do not sell the crops they harvest immediately. They store them using different preservation methods. None of the women farmers interviewed used modern methods for storing their crops.

Majority of the women rely on traditional storage methods using insecticides or rat poison, locally referred to as “bomb”, which they tie in rags to repel pests. One of the crops they use the “bomb” to preserve is beans, risking food poisoning if not properly handled before it is sold.

Explaining the reason for storing their produce for a while before selling, majority of the women farmers said they do so to make more profit as this tends to increase the price of the products, which had benefitted them in the past.

“We store our harvests the local way. Like beans, we got some storage bags sold by the Niger State Agricultural and Mechanizaion Development Agency (NAMDA). When you put your beans in that bag, it can stay for 8 to10 months.

“For soybeans, rice and maize, we store it locally. We put it in the room and put the chemical for preservation in it. The chemical is called the bomb. We put it in rag and tie it and put it inside the beans or other products like corn, millet and others.

“The reason for using the bomb is that the smell drives away any pest, especially rats, weevils and termites. So, on my part, when I want to sell my produce, I take the produce and spread it on the floor for a day or two so that the sun can heat it and remove any smell or residue from the chemical we use.

But she admitted that this could be dangerous to health.

“In some cases, you will hear sometimes that beans kills people. That is because some people just take it to the market without removing the bomb, and this type of beans, when you cook it, you will perceive the smell. That is why it poisons people. It kills some people.

“Some of these people where you say they ate beans and before you know they die, this can be as a result of eating beans that were preserved and was not properly dried before they were sold.

“For yams, we have the barns which can serve for three to six months,” Jummai said.

Safiya Musa, who farms rice in Paikoro, said she has been using the rat poison known as “bomb” for storing her grains since she started farming about six years ago.

“I don’t have any problem or loss or damage. I use rat poison. I store maize for one year, nothing goes wrong with it.

“Apart from maize and rice, other grains cannot stay very long as termites can enter to eat them up, especially if the ‘bomb’ you use has expired and you did not check it.”

Comfort Joseph, a rice, beans, potatoes and corn farmer in Dikko community in Gurara LGA, uses a different and safer method in storing her beans by pouring ash on it as she fills it into the storage bag. For maize, she uses neem leave which she places inside the sack.

“Pest has never affected my crops. But sometimes when you do not store your product properly, moisture affects it.

“For other crops, I use the insecticide bomb to store them. It does not affect the crops, it is safe to use. All you have to do is use rag to tie it before dropping it into the crop.”

Niger State based Nutritionist,  Hajiya Asmau Mohammed, explained that the use of chemicals in grain preservation is a common practice worldwide, particularly in areas with high humidity or long storage periods, noting that while chemicals effectively prevent insect damage, reduce post-harvest losses and maintain grain quality, they also pose significant health and environmental risks.

“The contamination of grains with pesticide residues and the development of insect resistance are major concerns. For instance, studies carried out have shown that exposure to pesticides like phosphine can lead to neurological damage and respiratory issues in humans.”

She noted that non-chemical methods, such as drying, storing in airtight containers, and using natural preservatives, offer eco-friendly and cost-effective alternatives as these methods not only preserve grain quality but also promote sustainable food systems and community resilience.

“However, the non chemical method may require more labour and careful monitoring, and their effectiveness can be limited by factors like storage conditions and pest pressure.

“As a nutritionist, I believe that a balanced approach that combines the benefits of both chemical and non-chemical methods could be the way forward.”

A health Consultant, Mathew Oladele noted that the common rodentcides in Nigeria commonly called rat bomb or giant killers or smoke bomb are not safe for grain or any type of food preservation, especially grains, adding that these chemicals cause food contamination and poisoning risks.

“The rodentcides contains some chemical properties that are harmful to humans and animals. These materials are made purposely to control rodents and not to preserve foods items especially grains. These chemicals cause food contamination and poisoning risks.

“The farmers need to be advised to stop using these harmful methods to preserve grains. Rat bomb has a tendency to cause multiple organs failures in human beings just as it does to the rats. It can cause food poisoning, severe illness, internal bleeding, brain swelling or even result in death.”

He insisted that the process of preserving using rat bomb should be eliminated while farmers should be advised to use safer methods of grains preservation like rodents-proof containers, perimeter rodentcides fumigation, and other non-chemical storage systems to avoid contamination that could lead to food poisoning..

Enforced uniform prices, higher losses

In markets across the state, farmers face difficulties in selling their grains in the local markets at the rate they desire because of the market leaders who work at ensuring that every trader in the market sells at uniform prices, irrespective of each one’s peculiar realities, which in turn worsens farmer’s losses.

Ndatu Ibrahim, a market leader in Paikoro, said the price of food is set when the market leaders calculate the amount the grains were brought and the transportation used in conveying the goods to the market with a little amount added to it as gain for the traders.

Ndatu, who acknowledged the low prices of food, said unlike previous years when middlemen follow the farmers to their farms in the hope of getting it cheaper, this year was different because farmers are looking for ways to sell their produce at slightly higher rate in order to get returns on their investment. She added that several of the middlemen also felt the brunt of the food price reduction as those who stored their goods now sell at a loss.

“The food prices have come down very much. The cause is unknown. Everybody in the market is crying, those who did storage, they are the ones who cried a lot. Some store corn at N10 million and sell it at N4 million. They lose. The price did not go up at all this period.  Middlemen who brought at any amount and stored also lost most of their money. Now, the middlemen have refused to come like they used to do because they lost a lot.”

The Market Women Head in Agaie market in Agaie LGA, Zainab Mohammed, noted that they try to ensure that there are uniformed prices and anyone who flaunts the order faces disciplinary action which may lead to the person not selling in the market that day. 

“Every day, when I come into the market, I and other officials go round and ask how much they are selling their product. Once a trader gives a different price, that trader is queried, and if the reason is not vital, we ask them to sell at the same rate with others. That is how we work to ensure all prices are the same.

“We always have challenges especially with the farmers who sell their goods directly in the market. When we ask them to sell at lesser price than they are proposing, they complain that some of them go on dry season farming where they use fuel, which is very expensive. The price of the fertilizer is high and selling at lower price is killing them. But our hands are tied because the price has to be uniform.”

Niger State Governor, Umaru Mohammed Bago, in October last year inaugurated the Niger State Price Control and Monitoring Board. The board is an eight-member committee led by Alhaji Hussaini Ahmed, who is a former Permanent Secretary, as Chairman – with other members drawn from various ministries, departments and agencies.

The primary goal of the board is to ensure fair pricing and protect consumers and farmers from exploitation. Its specific functions include to control and stabilise the prices of essential commodities across the state; eradicate or minimise the hoarding of essential goods by traders; keep market prices under continuous surveillance and interpret price movements and handle issues that arise from enforcement and implement penalties for those who violate pricing guidelines.

As at November 2025, the board was yet to undertake any activity nor has it carried out any specific enforcement actions, such as crackdowns on hoarders or the seizure of goods. The board has also not released an official, regulated price list for specific essential commodities.

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The reporter tried to get the Chairman but could not get his contact, while some members who were reached said since the announcement of their names as board members the board has never really functioned.

This is essentially, they said, because the government has not released money to fund its activities. It was gathered that since its inaugural meeting, the board has not met since it was inaugurated in October 2024.

A retired statistician general in Niger State, who is also a farmer, Alhaji Usman Liman, noted that the drop in food prices is a good thing, but added that it would discourage farmers, especially as the prices of inputs, fertilizer, chemicals and seedlings have not reduced.

“A farmer will buy his fertilizer N40,000 or more per bag and at the end, he will sell his maize for N20,000 per bag. This means he has to sell about two or three bags to get a bag of fertilizer. So it is not good for the farmers.

“The long-run implication is that the next one year or less than one year, these prices will move. Particularly if it reaches next year, if farmers are discouraged, they won’t farm again.

“What do you think will happen? Farmers will not go to the farms, there will not be food. So, the little food available will make the prices skyrocket again.

“What the government should have done is to encourage the farmer by not opening the door for import, because you are encouraging people from other countries, particularly large-scale farmers from other countries bringing in their goods”.

Why intended support fails to reach women farmers —NAMDA

The Managing Director of NAMDA, Muhammad Alibaba, explained that while the state has policies to support women, a combination of input diversion, a distribution model that relies on a few formal (and not widespread) groups, and a critical lack of extension staff makes several women farmers to be “sidelined” and fail to access the intended inputs.

He explained that the government’s “specific allocation for women” is channeled through a few prominent, organised women’s farmer groups, stressing that women who are not registered members of these specific organisations are often left out, admitting that these organised women farmers groups are not widespread but the agency cannot be everywhere.

“As we speak, the government has approved the purchase of some quantity of inputs that will be distributed to farmers for the dry season (farming), since rainy season is over already. So that is likely to be sold as a subsidy to farmers.

“We are conscious of the gender balance and gender mainstreaming. So, most often when it comes to inputs distribution by government, there are a few notable organisations that cater for women farmers. They are usually given priority attention in addition to ordinary farmers. These women organizations usually get specific allocation for their members.

“Everybody is aware that the input costs are very high. Even male farmers can hardly afford them. So, we are hoping that apart from the state government’s expected intervention, the federal government itself may do something”, he said.

Speaking on diversion, Muhammad acknowledged that they receive the same complaints once in a while explaining that most often, the inputs are usually limited and with little or no logistics to convey them to the expected locations, it may be diverted by some elements.

“Efforts, like I said, are being deliberately made to ensure that women are not sidelined. So, those women that are complaining, maybe we need to encourage them to join this kind of women organizations who we give priority to so that if these inputs are available, they will be able to benefit from them. But, you know, anything that is human and is based on the population, there may be a few misclimates.

But by and large, we try and ensure that farmers, well-known farmers, registered farmers are who we relate to. We already have a database of farmers from which we extract the list of beneficiaries. We can’t attend to all the farmers in Niger state.”

The MD further lamented that the extension officers available at the local government levels to help farmers are not enough to cater for this large number of farmers across the state adding that there are some other initiatives at the community level that have taken it upon themselves to enlighten and train farmers.

“The extension workers are not enough and this is because there have not been massive employment concerning extension workers and a lot of the extension officers have retired without being replaced. But these efforts are being made to fill the gaps through these community-based advisors.

“And, of course, even the input suppliers, the distributors, they also serve like extension officers. So, in the local government agri-department, they also have officials that serve. But they are not enough.

“We know that, and the state government, not long ago, approved the recruitment of additional extension officers. We’re making deliberate efforts to fill the vacuum and increase the farmer to extension officer ratio,” he said.

As women farmers are already in the planting season, hope remains their only capital. They pray for better prices and real government support, so that full barns can finally mean full pockets.

•This report was made possible with support from the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, (ICIR).

• Unwanted pregnancies, maternal deaths rise as USAID, others withdraw support

Niger State, located in Nigeria’s North Central region, is struggling with high fertility rates and a substantial unmet need for family planning. With an average of 7.5 children per woman and entrenched cultural practices such as child marriage, the pressure on women and families is immense. JUSTINA ASISHANA reports that despite the growth of awareness and demand for family planning, the reality inside many Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across the state tells a different story, with empty shelves, reluctant clients, and overstretched providers struggling to fill a widening gap left by departing donor partners.

A 2020 analysis by the Development Research and Projects Centre (DPRC) revealed that Niger State relies heavily on donor and development partners, and if these people withdraw from family planning activities, it will suffer setbacks. In early 2025, major international donors, including USAID, have started to withdraw financial support for family planning in Nigeria; a development that has led to shrinking supplies of contraceptives, growing out-of-pocket costs, and increased risks of unintended pregnancies and maternal deaths, particularly in underserved northern states like Niger.

Across Gwari Road, Bosso, Paiko, and Kafin Tella primary health centres, family planning providers are not waiting for clients to come to them; they are taking the message door-to-door. At the Gwarin Road Clinic in Minna, Liatu Joan Peters, an assistant family planning provider, describes daily efforts to educate women during antenatal visits about the value of family planning, not only for their health but for their children’s futures.

“We sensitize them that family planning is good for women’s health because it allows them to plan well for their family and the development of the children. We also sensitize them that if they abide by family planning, they will have the opportunity to train their children the way they want,” she explained.

The family planning providers report increased uptake of contraceptive methods, with injectables and implants among the most popular choices. The clinics report growing numbers every day, reflecting greater community acceptance rooted in ongoing health talks and outreach programmes.

In Paiko’s Town Clinic, Blessing Barde told our reporter that “those taking up family planning have increased because we go on outreaches to homes. We educate and advocate, even involving religious leaders and community development committees.”

In Paiko, Barde uses community outreach, religious leaders and Ward Development Committees to spread awareness while in Kaffin Tella, Ramatu Abdulmalik involves husbands and teenagers in conversations, helping to demystify family planning and reduce stigma. Community engagement through religious leaders, house-to-house visits and counselling in antenatal and immunization clinics has built a stronger base of informed clients who are less hesitant to seek services.

Yet, even as knowledge and desire for family planning rise, the supplies needed to meet demand increasingly fall short as several facilities have experienced shortages for months. But in order not to allow the enthusiasm of their clients wane, the providers are getting creative in keeping services going.

In Bosso Low Cost PHC, Hadiza Abdullhi Dada says they need to write prescriptions for clients to buy their chosen methods elsewhere and return to the health center to fix it.

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According to her, her PHC had recorded more than 200 clients in July alone for implants, injectables and condoms while other providers say acceptance rates are climbing due to targeted outreach, with more women and in some cases men openly requesting contraceptives.

Even with shortages, providers are seeing changes in attitudes. “People are accepting family planning. The demand is more than before because they now have the information,” Peters said.

Supply shortages threaten hard-won gains

Despite visible enthusiasm for family planning, PHCs repeatedly face the challenges of empty shelves. Seyanna Press, a preferred injectable contraceptive, along with certain pills, remains in chronically short supply. “Sometimes we have commodities, sometimes we do not,” Peters admits. “When they are out of stock, we have to buy the commodities ourselves from our revolving fund so that the women can have access when they come. But they get it for a price and not free as the one we get from the government.”

Similarly, at Bosso Low Cost PHC 1, Hadiza Dada, the family planning officer in-charge, recounts the challenge of telling clients they are out of stock.

She said: “We are having more clients now, but the problem is that if they come, we do not have many family planning commodities that we give to them.

“When they come, we write the one that they chose for them to go and buy or we give them another visiting day that they should come back pending when we would have the commodity on ground.

“If they buy, they will return to us so that we can fix it for them.

“Oftentimes, when we write for them, it is difficult for them to get it from pharmacies, and that was when we decided to start buying it ourselves so that we will have it at hand when they come.”

The burden of sourcing contraception without steady government supply is widespread.

Ramatu Abdulmalik from Kafin Tella PHC said: “Most times, we use our own money to buy and keep commodities for clients.

“It is supposed to be free, but when government supplies finish, we help them buy at affordable prices.”

This patchwork response, while commendable at the individual provider level, points to deeper systemic issues. The shortage is not merely a local supply chain hiccup; it stems from a lack of political will and resources at the state and national levels.

Why the gap persists

The growing demand is colliding with a shrinking supply pipeline. For years, Niger State relied heavily on donor-funded commodities like the popular Sayana Press injectable. Investigations show that several donor partners in the family planning space have withdrawn their services in the state within the past one year, largely due to low state government commitment to meet with their counterpart funds.

Investigation also revealed that these partners are now navigating some northern states whose governments they tag as serious about their family planning commitments.

The 2019 family planning Implementation Plan for Niger State allocated only 0.5  per cent of funds to family planning financing, while the state released an even smaller share, heavily depending on donor support. But without the donor partners support, the gap is beginning to show.

Further studies revealed that the shortage is also part of a national trend as the federal government now requires states to procure their own family planning commodities, following shortfalls at the national level.

“Until the state starts to procure family planning commodities, stock-outs will continue,” the Niger State family planning Coordinator, Nurse Talatu Abu, warned.

“The demand in the state is very high, especially with insecurity and economic hardship making people think carefully about having more children.”

The Niger State family planning coordinator articulates this stark reality: “Shortages started at the national level. The federal government’s stock is inadequate, and new procurement policies require states to also contribute their quota.

“Niger State must begin directly procuring family planning commodities to fill critical gaps.”

Unfortunately, the state government’s commitment remains limited; a fact echoed by multiple interviewees. This shortfall has led international donors, once the backbone of Niger’s family planning supply chain, to redirect investments to states where political will and budgetary support are stronger.

When asked about the withdrawal of development partners in the family planning space from the state, the family planning Coordinator refused to say anything about it. He, however, said that what is happening at the federal government seems to be reflecting the state as a result of lack of funding.

The absence of government-led intervention has other cascading effects as it was learnt that training and sustaining family planning providers have suffered due to staff attrition, with many family planning providers retiring or transferring without replacements.

It was learnt that the last broad training effort was in 2020, leaving the system stretched to meet rising demand.

Human cost of inaction

Despite the progress in awareness and uptake, the lack of consistent supply threatens to undo years of gains. Providers say clients are frustrated when their preferred methods are unavailable, often rejecting alternatives and returning home without any protection, putting them at risk of unintended pregnancies.

Access through pharmacies is also unreliable, with products either unavailable or requiring advance orders. Without state procurement and a steady supply chain, the gap between demand and availability will only grow. Providers themselves bear financial and emotional burdens, using personal funds to keep women protected and juggling client frustrations.

For women relying on regular contraceptive injections, stock-outs can mean returning home without protection, risking unintended pregnancy. Some women express disappointment and distrust when their preferred methods are unavailable, weakening confidence in the healthcare system.

“The shortage affects the reproductive health of women,” Abdulmalik emphasises. “It is not proper for them to come for a method and be told none is available. It unsettles them and places them at risk.”

While client preference for Seyanna Press and implants remains strong, providers work hard to counsel clients on alternative methods, balancing education with empathy. “We try to explain that all methods have side effects, and some women accept alternative. Bbut many remain reluctant,” stated Peters.

The way forward

Niger State’s family planning story is one of both promise and peril. On one hand, community-driven advocacy, innovative service delivery, and skills upgrades are changing the way women and men think about contraception. On the other hand, the withdrawal of key donor and development partners and slow government response to procurement responsibilities are creating dangerous service gaps.

For the women who now understand and want family planning, the next step is not persuasion, it is provision. And unless Niger State steps in to bridge the commodity gap, the risk is clear: the progress so far could unravel, taking with it the health, safety, and economic security of families across the state.

Key to reversing this trend is revitalising government commitment through direct procurement of family planning commodities by Niger State Government, filling gaps left by federal supply shortfalls, increased budgetary allocation and timely disbursement to ensure commodity availability at health facilities, reinvigorating training programmes to replace retiring providers and maintain service quality and strengthening partnerships with remaining donors and local organisations, supported by transparent government communication and accountability.

As donors shift their focus to states exhibiting political will, Niger stands at a crossroads. The commitment shown by providers and communities calls for matching resolve from state leaders. Without urgent action, the risks of unintended pregnancies, maternal mortality, and family hardships will grow, eroding the progress so painfully won.