Moniepoint, NGO tackle period poverty, empower 500 Lagos schoolgirls

Moniepoint has partnered with Sanitary Aid for Nigerian Girls to advance women’s dignity and inclusion by empowering 500 girls in Lagos with sanitary kits, menstrual health education, and life skills to support their future personal and economic development.

The initiative, held at New Era Girls Secondary School, Surulere, Lagos, was organised to commemorate the 2026 World Menstrual Hygiene Day, themed “A Period-Friendly World.”

A statement sent to PidomNigeria Healthwise noted that the intervention aimed to address period poverty, improve menstrual health awareness, and equip young girls with knowledge of hygiene, female anatomy, and other life skills.

The statement read, “Globally, about 500 million women and girls still lack the necessary resources to manage their periods safely, hygienically, and with dignity. This crisis is fuelled by a severe lack of product access, inadequate Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene infrastructure, and deep-seated societal taboos that hinder open conversation.

“In Nigeria, peer-reviewed research published this year in the Oxford journal International Health, drawing on 26 studies, directly links insufficient sanitation, absent menstrual products, and poor menstrual health education to school absenteeism, psychological distress, and heightened vulnerability among adolescent girls.”

“Survey data indicate that more than 23 per cent of Nigerian girls aged 15 to 24 missed school due to menstruation in the past year, with a separate study recording 43 per cent absent due to menstrual pain alone,” the statement read.

The outreach comes amid growing concerns over the impact of poor menstrual hygiene management on girls’ education, wellbeing and future opportunities.

Speaking during the event, Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Moniepoint Inc., Edidiong Uwemakpan, said addressing period poverty was closely linked to promoting financial inclusion and economic empowerment for women and girls.

“Girls who miss school because they menstruate are girls who fall behind. Women who carry the stigma and practical burden of unmanaged menstrual health are women whose economic agency is curtailed before it has a chance to develop.

“And so for us, linking menstrual equity interventions with financial inclusion outreach was a natural pathway to ensuring that our mission of financial happiness remains unencumbered,” Uwemakpan said.

The founder of Sanitary Aid for Nigerian Girls, Karo Omu, said the organisation had distributed more than 80,000 sanitary pads and reached over 53,000 girls across 23 states through menstrual health education and product support.

She noted that menstrual poverty extends beyond health concerns and aligns with financial inclusion for women and girls.

“We serve communities where women’s economic participation is often severely limited by a lack of access to basic menstrual products.

“By aligning menstrual equity with financial inclusion, we can build a broader, scalable program that moves beyond product distribution to true economic empowerment,” Omu said.

The outreach also featured sessions on menstrual hygiene, reproductive health, anatomy, financial literacy and confidence-building, with volunteers encouraging the students to embrace menstruation as a normal biological process and not a barrier to achieving their goals.

Reflecting on the programme, Moniepoint volunteer and Market Research Team Lead, Sophia Ukoni, described the engagement as an opportunity to inspire and educate young girls.

“Spending time with the students of New Era Girls Secondary School alongside Sanitary Aid for Nigerian Girls, as we celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Day, was worthwhile.

“It was a rewarding experience teaching the girls about the importance of financial literacy and introducing them to the work we do at Moniepoint. I am grateful for opportunities like this to give back, share knowledge, and contribute to empowering the next generation of young women,” she said.

The statement further noted that creating a period-friendly world requires sustained investments in menstrual health education, access to sanitary products, supportive school environments and policies that ensure girls can manage their periods safely and with dignity.