Nigeria: Expanding Access to Family Planning

JOS, Nigeria, January 30, 2007 — For Emeka Iwu, “knowledge is priceless,” particularly when it comes to knowing when to refer potential oral contraceptive (OC) clients to a medical provider.

Emeka is a Proprietary Patient Medicine Vendor (PPMV) who has been selling medicines from a modest shop in the heart of the Kugiya marketplace for ten years.

OCs may only be initiated under the care of a medical provider who can ensure that a woman has no contraindications. New regulations allow PPMVs to resupply OCs, but there are concerns that PPMVs may sell them to women who are initiating use without referring them to a medical provider.

Society for Family Health (SFH) recognized the role of PPMVs as a key source of information and designed Awareness Creation trainings to highlight the importance of referring new users to a medical provider to avoid the dangers of contraindications.

Not long after he completed the training, a woman stopped by Emeka’s shop to buy OCs. Having participated in the training, Emeka asked if she had taken the pill before and when she said she had not, he referred her to a medical provider.

Knowing the dangers of contraindications, Emeka explained the importance of initiating OC use through a higher level medical provider. Emeka was discouraged because he did not believe she would take his advice and thought he had lost a potential customer.

A week later, the same woman returned and expressed gratitude for Emeka’s counseling. The medical provider she visited had found that she had a serious contraindication to the pill, and recommended another method. According to her, Emeka had “saved her life.”

Emeka is proud of his new skills: “If I had not referred her to get better health care than I could provide, I would have made the profit on the product but my action would have put her health in jeopardy. Indeed, the session on Referral Systems is a key achievement of the PPMV Awareness Creation Activity.”

He has gained this customer’s trust, which he says has been good for business. “There are several other people whose trust I have gained through such referrals, counseling or advising... In the long run, my business is the better for it.”

Emeka now assists SFH in mobilizing his colleagues for PPMV trainings. He feels all PPMVs should acquire knowledge that will both improve the health of their clients and lead to better business.

— Daniel Bott, SFH/Nigeria, and Jamaica Corker, PSI/Washington

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