THE Nigerian Government has restated commitment to improve and sustain immunization coverage in the country.
Specifically, the government assured the Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI) and other partners of improved routine immunization in Nigeria.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, gave the strong commitment while members of GAVI were sharing challenges and the successes in the immunization regime and review strategies for improvement of routine immunization at the 68th Meeting of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa, holding in Dakar, Senegal.
Speaking on behalf of Nigeria at the meeting, Prof Adewole said the country is very committed to the improvement of routine immunization as a way of saving lives and improving health outcomes.
He noted that the country recently conducted a Multi Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) that gave a clearer picture of the immunization status as against the administrative data, and thereby declared a Public Health Emergency on immunization to enable the country close all the identified gaps.
Accordingly, he said the government came up with several initiatives to address some of the challenges such as the establishment of National Emergency Routine Immunization Center (NERIC) which primarily aims to revamp the country’s Routine Immunization (RI) Programme.
He, however, listed some of the major challenges as poor coordination, accountability, weak service delivery and inaccurate data among others.
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In addressing these, he said the country now adopted Zero tolerance for data falsification, while NERIC has developed a strong coordination and accountability structure, with reward and sanction for actors at the Federal, States and Local Government levels.
Besides, he stated that NERIC now conducts daily progress monitoring meetings to immediately identify gaps and deal with them appropriately.
According to the minister, GAVI’s decision to extend the transition period to 10years as against the earlier 5year deadline has helped the country in mapping out funding plans to ensure sustainability after the withdrawal of GAVI support for immunization in Nigeria.
“Government of Nigeria has an annual funding plan of 10% increase in immunization budget which will enable the country take full responsibility for immunization of its citizens by the end of the transition Programme in 2028.” Prof. Adewole said.
According to him, the country has a target of 80% immunization coverage, adding that the government was very grateful to GAVI for the extension.
He also said the country would “keep faith in our commitments to GAVI and all our other development partners.”
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