Moniepoint, NGO tackle period poverty, empower 500 Lagos schoolgirls

Moniepoint has joined forces with the NGO Sanitary Aid for Nigerian Girls to address period poverty and empower 500 schoolgirls in Lagos. The initiative provides essential sanitary kits, comprehensive menstrual health education, and life skills training, aiming to foster dignity and support the future personal and economic development of young women.

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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.

The event took place at New Era Girls Secondary School in Surulere, Lagos, coinciding with World Menstrual Hygiene Day, celebrated this year under the theme “A Period-Friendly World.” The partnership seeks to tackle the critical issue of period poverty, enhance awareness of menstrual health, and equip girls with vital knowledge about hygiene, female anatomy, and essential life skills.

Globally, an estimated 500 million women and girls struggle with safe and dignified menstrual hygiene management due to a severe lack of products, inadequate sanitation facilities, and pervasive societal taboos. In Nigeria, research highlights a direct link between insufficient sanitation, absent menstrual products, and poor menstrual health education with increased school absenteeism, psychological distress, and heightened vulnerability among adolescent girls. Studies indicate that over 23% of Nigerian girls aged 15-24 missed school in the past year due to menstruation, with nearly half absent due to menstrual pain alone.

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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.

Edidiong Uwemakpan, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Moniepoint Inc., emphasized the connection between addressing period poverty and promoting financial inclusion. "Girls who miss school because they menstruate are girls who fall behind," she stated. "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." She noted that linking menstrual equity interventions with financial inclusion outreach was a natural step toward their mission of financial happiness.

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

Karo Omu, founder of Sanitary Aid for Nigerian Girls, reported that her organization has distributed over 80,000 sanitary pads and educated more than 53,000 girls across 23 states. She echoed the sentiment that menstrual poverty extends beyond health concerns, aligning closely 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," Omu said. "By aligning menstrual equity with financial inclusion, we can build a broader, scalable program that moves beyond product distribution to tru

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By aligning menstrual equity with financial inclusion, we can build a broader, scalable program that moves beyond product distribution to tru