On a Wednesday afternoon, a 13-year-old girl at Onike Girls Junior High School in the slum of Makoko came out of her mother’s wooden shop to join her friends to play on the street. Her excitement was short-lived as her mother called her to speak to Peoples Gazette.

The young girl sat on a bench in front of her mother’s shop. 

“I use cloth for my menstruation. I started using cloth at the age of 12 when I first saw my menstruation,” the girl told The Gazette. “My mother asked me to use cloth for my period so it would not stain my clothes.”

A period (menstruation) is normal vaginal bleeding that occurs every month for a person with a womb and ovaries. While menstrual products are hygienic products such as (sanitary pads, menstrual cups, tampons, reusable pads) used to collect a monthly flow of blood.

“I asked her to use cloths for her period because of the financial burden,” said Oladipupo Olaitan, the girl’s mother.

The 35-year-old mother of three also uses cloths as menstrual pads.

She explained, “I also use cloth myself. I cannot rely on sanitary pads because I experience heavy flow monthly. So, I change pads in less than an hour.” 

That is only half of her worry.

“And my daughter, where will she get the money to buy sanitary pads?” she asked. “That was my reason for introducing her to cloths. They are new cloths. She washes and cleans them well.”

Period poverty occurs when someone cannot afford proper menstrual products. Period poverty is an extension of widespread poverty in Nigeria with over 40% of people living in poverty which amounted to approximately 83 million people, according to Statista. Priority is not given to educating young girls about their bodies and menstrual hygiene when they are only concerned about daily survival.

According to ActionAid, period poverty is a global issue affecting women and girls who do not have access to safe, hygienic sanitary products, and/or who are unable to manage their periods with dignity, sometimes due to community stigma and sanction.

“It doesn’t just refer to those who have no access to sanitary products – in some cases, women and girls have limited access, leading to prolonged use of the same tampons or pads, which can cause infection,” said the organisation.

Many females have no access to menstrual products, forcing them to use cloths, leaves, tissue, wool, and even rags as menstrual pads, risking infections.

Bisola Adetunji is a stay-at-home mother of a two-year-old. She is financially dependent on her husband for household purchases. There is barely any money left with her after cooking for her family, affecting her menstrual hygiene.

“I have been using cloths for the past three months because I do not have sanitary pads to use for my menstruation,” Mrs Adetunji, 23, admitted. She experiences heavy menstrual flow and changes the pad four times a day. She used cloths as sanitary pads when she was a teenager.

Financial burden

On average, women are on their period for about five days and use about three pads a day, a packet of 10 sanitary pads costs between N400 and N2,000, and women might need more than a packet for a month depending on the menstrual flow. A major cause of period poverty is the high cost of menstrual products. Many young women are strongly affected.

Girls in secondary schools will spend up to N55,000 on sanitary pads for six years, about N9,600 a year and N800 in a month.

While locally made sanitary pads are VAT-free, foreign brands are not. But both brands compete at various prices in the market.

Oyinda, a 16-year-old girl student at Unity Senior High School Oshodi, passed for privileged among other girls her age. Her mother buys her sanitary pad every month.

“I buy my sanitary pad at the cost of N400 per pack,” Miss Oyinda said. “I purchase my sanitary (pads) and sometimes mummy buys them for me. But at times you get broke, and then you will be worried that you have to buy sanitary pads for your menstruation.”

The teenager lamented the amount spent monthly to buy two packs of sanitary pads. “I wear three pads at home while on school days I wear four pads daily. I use 18 sanitary pads monthly.”

She added, “I do not think menstrual products should be this expensive, it is not a want it is a necessity as a lady.”

Mrs Adetunji further explained, “I am very familiar with Ladycare sanitary pad but the price is now alarming in the market. It costs N400 cost for one sanitary pad. This is what I formally buy for N70 when I started using sanitary pads.”

Inadequate government support

Many Nigerian women struggle to stay hygienic during their menstrual period because of being unable to buy a sanitary pad.

President Muhammadu Buhari signed a 7.5 per cent value-added tax-free policy on locally made sanitary pads in Nigeria. But, not much has been achieved due to import and sales taxes as the majority of the pads in the market are imported as finished or near-finished goods. In that instances, the import tax may be part of the final consumer prices alongside sales tax.

Women have always struggled socially, economically, and politically in Africa’s most populous country as they have low representation in the political system, while Mr Buhari continues to assure women of adequate participation in governance and decision-making.

The government has not paid enough attention to period poverty among schoolgirls in primary and secondary schools. UNESCO estimated that one in 10 African girls missed school during menstruation.

There also seems to be no plan to address the increasing prices of sanitary pads.

“I have not seen anything that the government has done regarding menstruation even companies producing sanitary pads come to my school to give us for free,” young Oyinda told The Gazette. “If the government wants to do something now they should give us freely because some students are privileged while others get stranded, then your monthly flow comes. Menstruation is not something that you can tell to go back.”

As far as the teen mentioned at the outset is concerned, the government should step in to reduce the prices of menstrual products. “I want the government to reduce the prices so that we can also afford to buy them,” she said.

In Kenya, the government provides free sanitary pads in schools. Many Kenyan women also benefit from low-cost menstrual products as the government is said to remove all taxes on menstrual products.

Free pad for girls

Bukola Taiwo, the founder of BUTA initiatives, a non-governmental organisation that provides free sanitary pads to rural communities, believes that the government should be involved in ending period poverty.

“Menstrual products should be cheap and affordable for the average citizens. Everybody should be able to afford pads without a second thought,” she explained.

Menstrual pads should not be a luxury. She explained that her organisation gives free sanitary pads to girls living in low-income communities. While period poverty remains, she maintained that girls should not miss school because they cannot afford to buy the pads.

ActionAid listed the consequences of period poverty to include girls missing one or more days of school during their periods, which negatively impacts their education. In Sub-Saharan Africa, some girls will miss as much as 20 per cent of their school year; some may drop out of school altogether. 

According to Actionaid, the loss of education can mean girls are more likely to be forced into child marriage.

Another consequence is that women’s and girls’ health may be put at risk, as they are forced to use dirty rags which can cause infection. Risks can be greater if the woman or girl has undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).

Another issue that comes with period poverty is stigma.

“Due to community stigma women and girls may feel persistent shame and fear during periods, and in some cases face social sanctions such as chhaupadi in Nepal,” ActionAid stated.

Regarding her efforts to protect young girls from facing these risks, Ms Taiwo said, “My organisation is helping to reduce period poverty by providing sanitary pads for girls in rural areas and educating the girls and their parents on the importance of using pads.”

Girls with Period Foundation also has been supporting girls in school to get free sanitary pads.

“We have provided sanitary pads for over 10,000 females, we are doing this one girl at a time,” Lisa Numa, social media and content manager for the foundation told The Gazette. “Taxes should be banned, sanitary pads are getting expensive, they (sanitary pads) should be free because menstruation is not a choice.”

The organisation stated that it has been pushing for the adoption of the ‘Menstrual Hygiene Bill’ passed in 2018.

“Period poverty is more or less the cultural shame or the lack of menstrual products when you are on your period. Menstrual Hygiene Bill should be implemented because period poverty is really affecting women and girls,” she noted.

Poor hygiene

Tarbunde Worthy, a gynaecologist at Asokoro District Hospital, said the most common causes of poor menstrual hygiene are poverty and a lack of menstrual education.

The medical doctor explained that improper care of the women body’s can cause bacterial infections such as urinary infections, which will spread and cause foul smells if not properly treated.

“Poor menstrual hygiene leads to urinary tract infections or infections that affect the reproductive tract. There’s shame from the smell improper care causes. It causes girls to miss out on school and, in cases of profuse menstrual flow, maybe even drop out of school. The discomfort of leaking improvised sanitary materials impacts concentration,” she pointed out.

She said further, “The government needs to fund more community health programs so the girls can receive consistent education and free period products. Awareness campaigns are necessary for international aid because we need all the help we can get, and more.”