The Nigerian federal government in 2018 increased maternity leave from three to four months.

The Nigeria Governors' Spouse Forum (NGSF) has advocated the enactment of six-month maternity leave for women in all the states in the country.

Chief Executive Officer at the forum secretariat, Hauwa Haliru-Hassan made the advocacy on Thursday at a two-day training programme for journalists on Governance and Policy Reporting organised by the PREMIUM TIMES Training Academy in conjunction with the Nigeria Governors' Forum (NGF).

The Nigerian federal government in 2018 increased maternity leave from three to four months. The Nigerian Labour Law which came into force in 2004 had fixed maternity leave for three months for a woman working in the country's civil service. Agitation has been ongoing for the increase of maternity for mothers in public servants as well as those in the private sector.

In some states such as Kaduna, Oyo, Lagos and Ekiti, mothers in the public sector have the opportunity for up to six months maternity leave.

Mrs Haliru-Hassan, who is also the Head of the Human Resource and Governance Unit and coordinates the Gender Desk at the NGF secretariat said the forum (NGSF) started in 2020.

According to her, the forum is made up of the 36 States' First Ladies working together to complement the efforts of the governors on good governance.

She said the forum focuses on five thematic areas including sexual and gender-based violence programmes, Nutrition Initiatives, Cancer awareness, and skills acquisition.

"The forum also carries out social mobilisation to create awareness to ensure sexual and gender-based violence is reduced to the barest minimum."

She said through the efforts of the forum, the number of states that have domesticated have increased to thirty three.

The forum, she added, does not have a budget but relies on donor partners including UNICEF, UNESCO, Ford Foundation to execute its projects.