The Vaccine Alliance, Gavi, has provided Nigeria a grant of $191 million to strengthen the country’s health system and boost immunization coverage over the next four years.
Gavi’s Director of Health Systems and Immunization Strengthening, Alex de Jonquieres, made this disclosure while Speaking during the launch of the grant at the weekend in Abuja.
de Jonquieres, who said the grant is one of the largest ever made by Gavi , added that it is intended to help extend the reach of the health system to 1.8 million zero dose children, and increase immunization coverage to 84% by 2028.
“The grant received strong endorsement from our technical review panel for its strategic vision, digital innovation and focus on sustainability. Nearly 80% of is supporting work at the sub-national level and more than 10% of that will flow to civil society organizations working at the community levels to ensure the funding is available as close as possible to the communities we are seeking to reach. The National Traditional Leaders’ Committee will be a key partner in helping amplify these efforts at the sub-national level,” he said.
He also said Gavi is also investing close to $100 million this year in a vaccination campaign to protect over 100 million children against measles and rubella.
Also speaking also at the event, the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Muyi Aina, said Health Systems Strengthening-3 Support is a comprehensive primary health care and routine immunization strengthening initiative aimed at drastically reducing zero dose and increasing immunization coverage by improving the quality of care and service delivery across both public and private sectors.
While saying the goal is to achieve 80% routine immunization coverage and at least 50% reduction in zero dose burden by 2028, he said the implementation of HSS-3 will focus on six strategic areas that aligns with NPHCDA strategic blueprint and the SWAP.
The areas are strong governance, gender mainstreaming, digital solutions, behavioural change and resilient supply chain System.
He said with the support of Gavi (HSS-2), which just concluded, “over 1.7million zero dose children (12-23 months) were vaccinated through Zero dose reduction operational plan (ZDROP), routine Immunization intensification, and the Big Catch-Up initiatives, that are ongoing.
Also over 91 million Under 5 children reached during Measles catch-up campaigns from 2018-2024.”
He said 1.5 million children were reached during MenAfrivac catch up campaigns from 2020 to 2022, over six million under 14 children vaccinated during diphtheria reactive vaccination campaigns, as well as new vaccine introductions such as HPV vaccine and malaria vaccines.
He said that105,000 children were vaccinated with Malaria vaccine as of end of April 28 in 2 high burden States – Bayelsa and Kebbi.
He said, “And they are in the course of receiving the second, third and fourth doses of the vaccine.”
The Coordinating minister of health and social welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate, said Gavi’s investment in Nigeria has saved millions of lives, and enabled the country’s immunization program to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
He said the mission of Gavi to save lives and protect people’s health by increasing equitable and sustainable use of vaccines aligns with the vision of the national HSSB, which is to save lives, reduce both physical and financial pain and produce health for ALL Nigerians.
