Period poverty: UNFPA demands pad banks in Nigerian schools

By Chioma Obinna The United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, on Thursday called for the establishment of sanitary pad banks in schools across Nigeria to prevent girls from missing classes and examinations because of menstruation. The UNFPA Gender/GBV Management Specialist, Dr. Zubaida Abubakar, made the call at the Nigeria Menstrual Health Product Forum 2026 in Lagos themed: “Driving Standards and Policy Reform for Affordable Menstrual Products,” where stakeholders also demanded urgent reforms to make menstrual products safe, standardised and affordable.

Abubakar said the rising cost of menstrual products, inadequate water and sanitation facilities and limited access to quality products were deepening period poverty among women and girls. “We are calling on governments, CSOs, donors, philanthropists and foundations to come and support our girls.”According to her, a pad bank would provide girls with emergency access to sanitary products when they begin menstruating at school without adequate supplies or come from families unable to afford them.She said the initiative could be sustained through government social-protection programmes, Parent-Teacher Associations, foundations, individual donors and philanthropists.“If I have a daughter and I know that that girl is menstruating, no matter how difficult for me, I can put like two or three pads. But in case that one will not be able to sustain her, instead of her going back to the classroom to go and lie down and be crying in the school clinic, there should be something that she can go to,” Abubakar said.She said some schools and non-governmental organisations had already begun establishing pad banks, urging more stakeholders to adopt schools and provide regular supplies.The UNFPA official, however, stressed that distributing pads alone would not solve the problem.She said schools must also have adequate water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, as well as safe systems for disposing used menstrual products.“If we flood schools with pads, how are they going to dispose them if we don’t bring environment to make sure that there’s an incinerator or the right disposal methods?” she asked.Abubakar at the programme which brought together government agencies, regulators, manufacturers, civil society organisations and development partners, said the World Bank estimates that about 24 per cent of Nigerian schoolgirls regular…