June 22, (THEWILL) – Vice President Kashim Shettima has assured Nigerians that the Federal Government will address concerns surrounding the financing of primary healthcare system in the country.
The Vice President, who noted that polio is one of the major primary healthcare challenges in the country, disclosed that “the proposal is to provide timely domestic financing for the procurement of vaccines, which couldn’t have come sooner, to boost our industrial capacity to produce vaccines.”
The Vice President spoke on Thursday, when he met with some Governors under the umbrella of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Bill Gates at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
While acknowledging the threats facing Nigeria in the area of polio, the Vice President said Nigeria’s three-dose pentavalent vaccine coverage has improved from 33% in 2016 to 57% in 2021.
He said, “The variant polio virus has declined in Nigeria by 84% from 2021, falling to fewer than 200 cases in 2022.” He, therefore, commended the states that have achieved high-category immunization coverage, which is between 60% and 80% of the target demographic, adding that the number of states has expanded from 12 to 21 states in five years.
“The Federal Government and our respective State Governments are going to set in place a transparent process and structure to undo the reality of the country as one with one of the highest proportions of non-immunized infants in the world over the last decade,” he said.
Vice President Shettima stressed that the Federal Government is “committed to eradicating variant poliovirus by the end of the year, ensuring that every Nigerian child is covered in the routine immunization campaigns.”
On the issue of production of vaccines for the immunization of children, he assured that “we are going to work together to ensure that these vaccines are made available even to zero-dose children, of which ours, at 2 million, are the highest in the world after India.”
Shettima expressed the appreciation of the Federal Government to partners including Aliko Dangote’s Foundation and Bill Gates Foundation, whose empathy shone through that uncertain period in our history.
Earlier in his remarks at the interactive session, Bill Gates disclosed that his foundation had recently announced the intention to commit $7 billion to Africa in the next four years; to support routine immunization in Nigeria, and the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in Northern Nigeria.
Also in his remarks, Dangote said Bill Gates and himself have been partnering with both the Federal and State Governments for several years, supporting the efforts in eradicating polio and improving routine immunization, nutrition and primary healthcare in the country.
“We genuinely believe that the National Economic Council and the decisions that you will make over the next four years will determine whether Nigeria has sound economic growth, keeps its citizens happy and achieves the sustainable development goals,” he added.
In separate remarks, the Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, who doubled as Governor of Kwara State, Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq and some Governors, who spoke at the parley, lauded the philanthropic interventions of the Dangote and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations in critical areas including healthcare, education, agriculture and human capital development. The Governors expressed the readiness to further collaborate with the Dangote and Gates Foundation in the coming years.
About the Author
