Mohammad Kado Abubakar, State Health Promotion Manager and family planning advocate in Yobe State.
Mohammad Kado Abubakar, the State Health Promotion Manager in Yobe State, Nigeria, has been a driving force in strengthening the state’s health sector for the past eight years. He oversees efforts to create demand for health services and coordinates health promotion officers at both state and local government levels. His leadership has been instrumental in implementing effective social and behavior change strategies across the state.
Kado has worked closely with The Challenge Initiative (TCI), playing a central role in advancing demand generation interventions throughout Yobe’s communities. His commitment to family planning is evident – he consistently advocates for integrating it into all health promotion activities across other states as well.
Before TCI partnered with Yobe in January 2023, family planning uptake faced serious obstacles. Socio-cultural and religious biases, poor understanding of how to address them, and fixed mindsets among some providers limited demand. Reflecting on that period, Kado recalled:
Before the coming of TCI, there was the issue of a lack of awareness on family planning from the communities, and misconceptions held by the communities and religious groups. We also faced the issue of a lack of commodities and their limited availability in the state. Before, even when we provide adequate commodities, you will see that they expire at the facility, nobody will patronize them because of the low demand, and sometimes, they feel shy and are not able to ask directly for it.”
Through the partnership, TCI built the capacity of health promotion officers at both state and local levels in demand generation, interpersonal communication, and two-way referral systems. TCI also provided social and behavior change materials to spark community dialogue, address myths and misconceptions, and share accurate information about family planning.
These efforts have yielded impressive results. In 2024 alone, Yobe State reached 219,516 people with accurate family planning information and referred 95,149 for services – 79% of whom completed their referrals and accessed care at health facilities.
Demand generation efforts in Yobe State steadily increased throughout 2024, with more people reached, referred, and completing referrals each quarter.
Kado has witnessed the transformation firsthand:
Now, most of the community members know the importance of family planning. Let me cite an example with the ‘Hana Gamba’, these Fulani nomads now come and ask for family planning services, visiting facility to facility to seek services.”
He further emphasized the shift that has taken place:
The partnership with TCI has changed the narrative of family planning in the state. They (TCI) worked closely with our health promotion officers and community structures. They (TCI) supported them in building their capacities, creating awareness, especially as regards this referral system. Working with our mobilizers, we have seen an increase in demand for family planning. There are a lot of changes, especially about awareness creation in our communities.”
The partnership between Yobe State and TCI has reshaped the landscape for family planning. Together, they have overcome long-standing socio-cultural and religious barriers, reaching even hard-to-reach groups like Fulani nomads. Demand is growing, awareness is rising, and service delivery has become more efficient through stronger community and government capacity.
Most importantly, Yobe’s continued ownership and commitment to family planning signal that this progress will endure well beyond TCI’s direct support of the state, which graduated from TCI in September 2025.
