The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Civil Society Organisation, Center for Health Care Development and Youth Empowerment (Intersex Nigeria), to integrate intersex perspectives into the country’s healthcare policies.
This is aimed at improving protection and access to care for persons born with variations in sex characteristics.
The agreement, signed on Friday in Abuja, formalised a partnership that began in 2024 between the ministry and the CSO.
At this event, Intersex Nigeria also unveiled a policy toolkit designed to guide healthcare institutions in adopting more inclusive practices.
This is in line with the CSO’s mandate to improve the lived experience of intersex persons in Nigeria as communicated by the Executive Director and Founder of the CSO, Obioma Chukwuike in a statement shared with our correspondent on Saturday.
Intersex persons are born with innate variations in sexual characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female. This variation can be anatomical, gonadal or chromosomal.
The CSO noted that global estimates indicate that about 1.7 per cent of the world’s population has intersex traits.
In some cases, children born with these traits may later discover differences in their reproductive anatomy or genetic makeup that were not immediately apparent at birth.
According to the statement, the Director of the Department of Family Health, Dr John Ovuoraye, who represented the Minister of Health, Prof Ali Pate, said the minister had directed the ministry in 2024 to support advocacy efforts aimed at mainstreaming intersex issues into existing healthcare policies, recognising them as matters of public health importance.
Ovuoraye said the formal signing of the MOU signalled the ministry’s commitment to inclusive healthcare delivery and coordinated advocacy for intersex persons in the country.
He noted that low awareness of intersex issues within the healthcare system contributes to stigma and harmful misconceptions.
“So, the tendency to aportion the occurrence to witchcraft or wizard will be there and also the issue of stigmatization. So the whole idea of signing this MOU is to make it a public healthcare issue,” he said in the statement.
Ovuoraye added that the ministry had a responsibility to lead public education and policy coordination on the issue.
“The ministry’s own is to lead the process so that awareness is well created. Because if people are aware of it they would be able to accept them (Intersex trait).
