Samuel disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
NAN reports that FGM is a practice, traditional in some cultures, of partially or totally removing the external genitalia of girls and young women for non-medical reasons. It is illegal in many countries.
The award winner, therefore, noted that consistent awareness and innovations aimed at discouraging the practice had made many communities to denounce it.
He added that “with awareness and innovations about the dangers of the practice of FGM, about 40 per cent to 50 per cent of women say they would not want their daughters to experience it.
“The UNFPA and other stakeholders are achieving a lot in the fight against FGM in Nigeria.”
The Big Family 360 Founder, who reiterated his commitment to ending FGM in the country, called for collaboration among relevant stakeholders.
He emphasised the imperatives of continuous sensitisation toward attitudinal change and cultural review for total end to the practice of FGM.
Samuel urged mothers and traditional institutions to galvanise ideas and policies that would discourage the practice.
Samuel is the only Nigerian winner of a recent FGM Innovation Hacklab co-sponsored by UNFPA through the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation and the Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional Program (SIARP) in September 2021.
He worked with the Gender-Based Violence (GBV) sub-sector under the humanitarian programme, where he developed a monitoring tool to support referrals for GBV survivors.
The award winner also developed a platform for anonymous reporting of FGM to authorities, using the UNFPA service mapping programme.
Discussion about this post