Nigeria denies plans to limit child births

The Nigerian government on Wednesday has denied it has plans of placing a two-children per family limit on its citizens.

Nigeria’s finance minister, Zainab Ahmed, at the 2018 Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, noted that the Federal government was planning a birth control policy to check the prevalent poverty and unemployment in the country.

She said the government was consulting religious and traditional leaders nationwide on the issue after which a policy would be formulated.

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Barely twenty-four hours after the statement was made, the finance minister said she was misinterpreted.

“The federal government has been engaging critical stakeholders like traditional and religious leaders to advise their members on child spacing,” Ahmed, Nigeria’s finance minister tweeted.

“We never said we are placing a cap on childbirth.”

The minister insisted that she only said the government was seeking religious and traditional leaders support to enlighten the public on child spacing.

“Exponential growth was identified as a challenge in the ERDP. We never said the Federal Government will place a cap on the number of childbirths, the government has been engaging traditional and religious leaders to educate their members on child spacing so they have the numbers we can adequately manage,” Ahmed said.

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