Katsina Has Highest Rate Of Teenage Pregnancy — NPC

The National Population Commission, NPC,
disclosed yesterday that Katsina State has the highest
rate of teenage pregnancy and motherhood in Nigeria.
Chairman of NPC, Eze Festus Odimegwu, who disclosed
this at a briefing to mark the 2013 World Population Day
in Abuja, said while the state accounted for 65 percent of
teenage pregnancy, Edo State recorded the least
percentage of 2.9.
Odimegwu said: “Teenage pregnancy varies markedly in
the Northern and Southern zones, as well as urban and
rural areas.
“They are higher in the Northern geo-political zone’s
rural areas. One in every three teenage girls in the North
has started child bearing in 2008, compared to one in
every 10 in the South.
Odimegwu, who was represented by the Head, Technical
Management, NPC, Mr. Festus Uzor, noted that
pregnancy was the highest killer of teenage girls
worldwide.
He said for girls and women aged 15-19, pregnancy and
child birth were the number one killer, adding that they
were the cause of 50,000 deaths of teenage girls every
year.
He opined that: “Teenage pregnancy not only imposes
severe health and psychological strains on their baby
and the teen mothers but also have a long term negative
impacts on sustainable development efforts.
“It worsens the population and reproductive health
situation and compromises genuine efforts to promote
gender equity, educational attainment, family values and
economic development”.
Odimegwu named the negative impacts of teenage
pregnancy to include unsafe abortion, pregnancy
complications, poor ante-natal care, week pelvic bones,
high fertility rate and curtailment of educational
attainment.
He blamed poverty for increased incidence of teenage
pregnancy, noting that teenage pregnancy remained the
most prevalent among girls from poor households.
According to him, poor teenagers are also the least likely
to use condoms among women who had high-risk
intimate intercourse in the 12 months preceding the
surveys.
Calling for a concerted effort to combat the ugly trend,
Odimegwu said: “Teenage pregnancy is still high in
Nigeria with a resultant poor intimate and reproductive
health.
“For a nation that seeks to improve the welfare of the
people on a sustainable basis, pursuing a concerted
effort with broad based national consensus and
international support in combating teenage pregnancy is
an absolute necessity.
“It is, therefore, imperative for Nigeria to implement
national and international conventions that seek to
curtail teenage pregnancy.