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 regularly miss school because of a lack of menstrual materials and inadequate WASH infrastructure, while UNICEF estimates that about 37 million women and girls in Nigeria experience period poverty.
She added that the forum should therefore go beyond discussion and produce practical reforms that would remove fiscal, regulatory and infrastructural barriers.
She said inflation had further worsened the situation, with the cost of menstrual pads rising significantly in recent years. “What was once affordable has now become a luxury for many,” she said.
Speaking, the Director-General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, Dr. Ifeanyi Okeke, said menstrual products must be both safe and affordable.
“Quality and affordability must not be treated as competing objectives,” he said.
Deputy Director, Child Development Department, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Mrs Mariam Shuaibu, said the presence of numerous disposable and reusable products in the market did not guarantee quality.
“It’s not just about having products in the market, but we want to ensure that those products meet the standards and quality that is desired to be used by women and girls in Nigeria,” she said.
Shuaibu said period poverty went beyond the inability to buy pads, noting that a girl could have a pad but lack water, privacy or a safe place to dispose of it.
UNFPA is also working with stakeholders to examine taxes, duties and levies affecting menstrual-product manufacturers and importers, with the aim of advocating reforms that could reduce production costs and improve affordability.
The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs said Nigeria’s National Policy on Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management had undergone consultations across the six geopolitical zones and been validated, with moves underway for Federal Executive Council approval and subsequent adoption by states.
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