‘Nigeria’s Teen Pregnancies on the Rise’ By Steve Dada

Nigerian parents may have to show greater concern over the welfare of their wards particularly the female children, as foreign report indicated that, unplanned pregnancies among Nigerian teenagers and young women have risen, despite improvements in educational levels of the citizens.
The report from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) monitored in Lagos noted that, in 2003, 16 per cent of pregnancies among girls and women aged 15-24 had been unintended, compared with 10 per cent in 1990. But a study from the New York-based Guttmacher Institute said low use of contraceptives was partially to blame. The institute blamed Nigerian authorities for failing to promote sexual health information for young Nigerians.
The study though found that Nigerian girls had become better educated, noting that the proportion of adolescent women with some secondary education had increased 16 percentage points (from 34 per cent to 50 per cent) between 1990 and 2003.
Over the same period, the use of modern contraceptive methods among sexually active adolescent women in Nigeria had changed very little, from four per cent to eight per cent, it said. Also during that time, the proportion of sexually active young women who knew where to access family planning services nearly halved, from 32 per cent to 18 per cent, found the report - which analysed health data from Nigerian authorities and non-governmental-organisations.
Nearly one-third of sexually active women aged 15-24 had had an unmet need for modern contraception in 2003, found the study. "We are failing Nigerian adolescents when it comes to providing them with the information and services.
They need to delay marriage and avoid unintended pregnancies," said the report's co-author, Professor Friday Okonofua. She said this was leaving young women at risk from unwanted pregnancies and sexually-transmitted diseases, such as HIV.
The study also noted the population of Nigeria - Africa's most-populous nation, with 150 million people - was growing by 2.2 per cent annually, and at that rate would double every 32 years.