The Taraba  Director of The Challenge Initiative (TCI), Dr Sarki Othman, has disclosed that over 750,000 new persons have embraced family planning in the state in the last three years.

Othman disclosed this in Jalingo on Thursday during a media roundtable  on sustaining and advancing the gains of family planning in Taraba.

He said  the achievement was made possible through deliberate efforts at sensitisation and enlightenment carried out during the period, but noted that a lot more needed to be done.

`’Let me commend  members of the press for the good work you are doing in enlightening the people on the positive impact of family planning.

`’Through your joint efforts with other partners, we have recorded tremendous improvement in the number of new acceptors of family planning in the state.

“Of course you know that the services are basically free but most people were reluctant to access the services due to certain misconceptions. These have been largely corrected.

`’We hope to continue our advocacies to ensure reasonable budgetary allocations and disbursement to the cause.

“We encourage opinion leaders to continue to enlighten the people so that this project is sustained beyond the stay of the TCI and other partners in the state,” the director said.

He explained that based on the baseline survey carried out in the state in 2015, 5.6 per cent was the prevalence usage of modern contraceptives.

According to him, by 2018 the use of the commodity had risen to more than 8.6 per cent.

He said said emphasis had continued to be laid on women of reproductive age and sensitising teenagers on life planning.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the  meeting is the second media roundtable toward advancing family planning in the state under the TCI which will be rounding up the project in the eight pilot local government areas of Taraba in 2021.

The pilot local government areas are: Jalingo, Ardo-Kola, Gassol, Gashaka, Wukari, Sardauna, Zing and Bali.

NAN