The Centre for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE) has called on the federal government to enact a national menstrual health policy to address period poverty affecting over 36 million Nigerian women and girls.
The organisation made the call during a girls’ conference to mark International Menstrual Hygiene Day on Tuesday at CEE-HOPE House in Lagos, which attracted about 120 students from 10 schools across Lagos and Ogun States.
The vibrant and inspiring one-day event featured diverse speakers from various sectors who mentored girls on personal menstrual hygiene management, leadership, purpose-driven living, and more.
Ms Betty Abah, Founder and Executive Director of CEE-HOPE, described period poverty as a human rights emergency that has become a national epidemic, forcing millions of girls to drop out of school due to a lack of access to sanitary products.
“We have met brilliant girls in places like Makoko, Monkey Village, and across several states—girls who dream of becoming doctors, lawyers, teachers—but who miss school every month, fall behind, and sometimes drop out completely just because they can’t afford a pad,” Ms Abah said.
She emphasised that menstruation is not a choice, describing period poverty as a form of injustice that requires urgent government intervention.
The CEE-HOPE founder lamented the chronic absenteeism among school girls who cannot afford sanitary products, noting that some resort to risky sexual arrangements that sometimes result in unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
Ms Abah criticised the Nigerian government’s indifference to the issue, contrasting it with countries like Kenya, Rwanda and Scotland that have implemented comprehensive menstrual health policies.
“It is heartening to see countries like Scotland, Kenya, and Rwanda making bold moves—providing free menstrual products, scrapping unjust taxes, and integrating menstrual health into their education systems. Nigeria must do the same. Not as a favor to our girls, but as a moral and constitutional obligation,” she stated.
The state coordinator of Child Protection Network (CPN), Lagos State, Mrs. Ronke Oyelakin, hopes for a country where a girl child can have easy access to pads.
“They should have a pad bank that children just walk in monthly without shame to request a pad, and they sign for it. That is where we need to get to for our girls to be free and be able to access all that they need to become women,” she said.
Mrs. Anka Amurawaiye, a girl leadership advocate, also emphasized on the need to reduce taxes on pad manufacturers, saying, “as important as giving food or making food cheaper, government should reduce taxes for those who manufacture pads so that the girl child can raise her head and be confident during her menstrual period”.
“By reducing that tax, it will go a long way in raising strong women,“ Amurawaiye added
While sharing what she learnt from the one-day conference, Williams Ewatomi, an SSS 2 student of Perfect Praise College, pleaded for a reduction in pad price and a tax waiver for pad manufacturers.
“The government should please help us to reduce the price of pads and not put taxes on pads or make it free for all. Sometimes I have to choose between food and pads, and this is always very annoying and tiring,” she said.
A Basic five student from Pachelli School for the Blind, Surulere, Lagos, Sanusi Mayokun also shared her take-home from the event, saying, “Girls are stronger than their male counterparts, so, we should not be brought down by anyone”.
CEE-HOPE further calls for free sanitary pads in public schools, prisons, and internally displaced persons camps, as well as comprehensive menstrual education for all students, including boys, and support for local pad producers and women-led cooperatives.
While acknowledging the government’s VAT exemption on sanitary pads as a positive step, Ms. Abah stressed the need for more comprehensive action, saying, “we need political will that matches the urgency of this moment.”
The event, which held at the Dr. Nnimmo Bassey Conference Hall at CEE-HOPE’s House in Lagos, attracted about 120 students drawn from 10 schools across Lagos and Ogun States.
Schools and communities represented at the event include Queen Amina School, Lagos; Queen Esther School; Delight Premium Royal Schools; Heavenly Love; and Oke-Aro Secondary School.
Other schools are: Perfect Praise Secondary School, Pachelli School for the Blind, and Heavenly Love Academy. School girls from Oke-Ira, Makoko, Monkey Village, Opebi, Ojota and other communities were also present at the programme.
