Over 1 Million Babies Vaccinated at Zero Cost in Zamfara, Sokoto, 9 Other States
Over one million babies across 11 states in the Northern region of Nigeria have been immunised against all forms of killer diseases
The immunisation program was carried out by key stakeholders in 11 states of the north through support from New Incentives - All Babies Are Equal (NI-ABAE)
The NI-ABAE said it will continue to collaborate with governments of states across the country to ensure that all babies are completely protected against diseases
Following efforts to ensure that children born across Nigeria are protected against killer diseases, states across the Northeast and North West regions of the country have succeeded in immunizing millions of babies.
Legit.ng gathers that the babies were immunised through the intervention of the Conditional Cash Transfer for Routine Immunization Program supported by the New Incentives - All Babies Are Equal (NI-ABAE) in collaboration with States' Primary Health Care Development agencies.
Source: UGC
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Two communique released after joint stakeholders' meeting in the two regions shows that the babies were immunised in five states of the Northeast - Gombe, Jigawa, Bauchi, Adamawa and Taraba states and six states in the Northwest - Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto, Katina, Kaduna and Kano states.
Some stakeholders include the commissioners of Health from all the states' ministries of health, their permanent secretaries and executive secretaries of SPHCDA in the 11 states among many others.
According to the communique, the NI-ABAE program encourages each round of vaccines to be included in Nigeria’s Routine Immunization schedule.
Also, small cash incentives are disbursed to beneficiaries during each of the six routine immunization visits, conditional on infants receiving BCG (newborn), PENTA, and PCV (6, 10, and 14 weeks); and MCV vaccines (nine and 15 months).
It noted that although these vaccines are the ones minimally required to receive the incentive, all vaccinations in the routine immunization schedule are encouraged.
The communique read in part:
"The caregiver receives N500 for all visits except for the nine-month and 15-month visits, where the incentive is N2,000 upon receiving MCV 1, and the incentive is N1,000 upon receiving MCV 2.
'These vaccinations are provided at no cost to the caregiver through government-supported clinics. The cash incentives help compensate for transportation costs, lost income, and waiting times while creating behavioural change through awareness creation on the benefits of immunizations."
So far, the program over 9.5 million vaccinations have been encouraged and N2.3 billion disbursed to caregivers through the collaboration of staff at over 4,000 government clinics in 124 LGAs.
Stakeholders after the meeting resolved that the program will continue to align its implementation with Federal and State laws, and policies including routine immunization plans and priorities, NI-ABAE through the implementing state will continue to support demand creation and other components of routine immunization in the five States and at the national level, provide transparent and regular updates to all stakeholders; and provide on routine immunization, health, and social protection; and
The initiative will also offer continued support through community engagement to promote vaccine acceptability while the state ministries of health will continue to provide the needed support to the programs at all levels, and facilitate meetings between the governors of their states and NI-ABAE representatives among others.
They will also support the NI-ABAE program in its expansion across new states.
Like Ghana, NAFDAC approves R21 malaria vaccine for Nigeria
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control approved the R21 malaria vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
The Director General of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, made this disclosure on Monday, April 17, at a press briefing in Abuja.
This makes Nigeria the second country to approve the new malaria vaccine developed at the University of Oxford, after Ghana.
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It was reported that the Nigerian government borrowed about $3.27 billion from five countries between June 2015 and September 2022.
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Source: Legit.ng
