The government of Tanzania has directed that all advertisements about family planning in the country’s media be taken off with immediate effect.

The directive comes just days after President John Magufuli advised women in his country to stop using family planning pills, saying they need more people.

"Those going for family planning are lazy ... they are afraid they will not be able to feed their children," the controversial president said.

Though he received lots of backlash across the globe for his view, Magufuli seems to be bent on banning family planning.

According to Tuko.co.ke, the ministry of health, community development, gender, elderly and children ordered FHI and USIAD to stop airing and publishing their content both on TV and radio with immediate effect.

The letter treads: "The ministry intends to revise the contents of all your ongoing radio and TV spots for family planning, thus I request you to stop with immediate effect airing and publishing any family planning contents on any media channels until further notice."

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According to worldometers.info, Tanzania currently has a population of 59,453,656 which is 0.77% of the world’spopulation and atotalland area of 885,800 Km2 (342,009 sq. miles).

Statistics from numbeo.com indicates that Cost of living in Tanzania is 26.77% lower than in Ghana (aggregate data for all cities, rent is not taken into account). Rent in Tanzania is 46.51% lower than in Ghana (average data for all cities).

However, just like any other African country, standard of living in Tanzania is nothing to boast of. Therefore, it is unclear why Magufuli is craving increase in the country’s population.