October 18, (THEWILL) – In a major move to boost immunisation activities in Cross River State, the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund, NSSF, a non-profit organisation and IHS Nigeria, have concluded plans to boost immunisation services in the state with N47 million.
The N47 million gesture, is part of a N150 million grant to the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency.
It is aimed at supporting the Conduct and Supervision of Optimised Outreach Sessions for Routine Immunisation (SCOORI) across the 196 wards of the state.
This was disclosed in Calabar during an engagement by the General Manager of NSSF, Fejiro Chinye-Nwoko, with the state’s health commissioner.
She explained that it became imperative for them to intervene in the area of immunisation to reduce mortality rate of under 5-year-old children.
“NSSF is bridging the financial gap by supporting immunisation outreaches all in a bid to reduce mortality rate of under 5 children .
“Over 70 percent of children are not immunised in Nigeria, we want to make sure that every disease that can be controlled or prevented is effectively done while things like outbreaks are also prevented.
“We will be tracking the disbursement of fund and the impact. We hope to sustain this intervention and also hope to attract private sector participation in a bid to accommodate more states subsequently”, she said.
She added that the collaborative effort recognises the vital role of immunisation in protecting the health of Nigerian children and aims to improve access to life-saving vaccines for every child, thereby preventing life-threatening diseases and outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases as seen recently.
On his part, Cross River state Commissioner for Health, Dr Henry Ayuk, lauded NSSF for its magnanimity by bringing such a project to the state.
Ayuk assured that the fund will be judiciously applied for the intended purpose, in order to achieve the desired result.
About the Author
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
