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From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) has commended the President Bola Tinubu for his passion and commitment to Nigeria’s quest for local manufacture of vaccines and entrenchment of qualitative health care delivery system.
It said such efforts would guarantee opportunities for the children to have access to vaccines that would assist them enjoy a healthy life, thus promising more support for Nigeria to enable it to improve access to new and underused vaccines for children in Nigeria.
Chief Executive Officer of Gavi, Sania Nishtar, gave the assurance in Abuja, at the weekend, when she took familiarisation tour of a primary health care (PHC) in Mabushi, Abuja, along officials of Federal Ministry of Health, World Health Organisation (WHO), National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and others, where she interacted with pregnant women and nursing mothers on their experiences at PHC.
She stressed the importance of vaccines to the health of children, encouraging mothers to always present the children at the PHCs for necessary routine immunisation that would strengthen the immune system of the babies, thereby guaranteeing their healthy living.
She said: “We are deeply committed to providing vaccines to the world, but the efforts have to be country-led. We are happy that President Bola Tinubu is someone that is committed to that project. “In my meeting with him a few days ago, he highlighted some of the steps being taken to improve availability of vaccines in Nigeria, to the point of local production.
“But in achieving the dream of local manufacturing of vaccines, there will be a need for the right institutions, manpower, political will and policies. Our role in Gavi is to ensure vaccine production becomes affordable without compromise as regards the quality within the African country.
“We have initiated a programme called ‘African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator’ which has enjoyed an advanced financial commitment to the tune of $1 billion. This is a great move, and I assure you there are better days ahead as regards access to quality and affordable vaccines for the healthy population.”
NPHCDA Executive Director, Muyiwa Aina, said issues of vaccine-preventable diseases have remained a top priority for the Federal Government, hence the unending investments and efforts in vaccine procurement and administration.
“Our routine immunisation coverage is obviously getting better kudos to all partners and field workers, but there is room for improvement. So, the government is using every available opportunity to ensure and strengthen the system for a better service to the people. Part of that is having access to the vaccines and the systems that allow for safe delivery of the vaccine, and that is where the partnership with Gavi comes into play. Gavi, undoubtedly, has been a longtime partner of the Nigerian government. They have been supporting us in terms of procurement of the vaccine, though not for free, but they have been subsidising the consignments for us,” he said.
He said another key challenge is the distribution of the vaccine, stressing that the government is using different strategies to reach out to unvaccinated children at different locations in Nigeria. “Unfortunately, there are zero dose communities in Nigeria where it was discovered some children never received immunisation. So, we target these locations, identify the children, and ensure we effect the necessary corrections,” he said.
WHO Country Representative, Walter Mulombo, who was part of the visit, said WHO is impressed with what it saw at the Mabushi PHC in Abuja, as well as the impressive patronage by nursing mothers.
