Nigeria will eradicate variant poliovirus by the end of the year, Vice President Kashim Shettima has declared.
Shettima made the declaration on Thursday during a meeting attended by some governors under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja. In the meeting were also the Co-Chairman of the Bill Gate and Melinda Foundation and Chairman of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote
Shettima pledged that Nigeria will not relent in its effort to completely halt polio by December.
“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.”
He acknowledged the threats facing Nigeria in the area of polio, adding that Nigeria’s three-dose pentavalent vaccine coverage had improved from 33 per cent in 2016 to 57 per cent in 2021.
“The variant polio virus has declined in Nigeria by 84 per cent from 2021, falling to fewer than 200 cases in 2022,” he said.
He praised the states that have achieved high-category immunisation coverage, which is between 60 per cent and 80 per cent of the target demographic and 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-immunised infants in the world over the last decade.
“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 immunisation campaigns.
“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 said.
The VP expressed the appreciation of the federal government to partners such as Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s Foundation and of Bill Gates Foundation, whose empathy, he said, shone through the uncertain period in Nigeria.
Bill Gates, said his foundation would commit $7 billion to Africa in the next four years
Also, African entrepreneur, Aliko Dangote said only concrete decisions by Nigerian leaders would see them to the actualisation of the sustainable development goals.
According to Gate, the pledge, which is up to 40 per cent on the amount spent during the previous four years, will target hunger, disease, poverty and gender inequality, among others.
Also in his remarks, Dangote said Bill Gates and himself had been partnering with both the federal and state governments for several years, supporting the eradication of polio and improving routine immunisation, 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, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq and some governors who spoke at the parley lauded the philanthropic interventions of the Dangote and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations in critical areas including healthcare, education, agriculture and human capital development.
According to a statement by Olusola Abiola, Director, Information, Office of the Vice President, the governors expressed the readiness to further collaborate with the Dangote and Gates Foundation in the coming years.
