Nigeria Gets N1.2bn Japanese Grant To Boost Immunisation

The Japanese government has given Nigeria a grant of N1.24 billion through UNICEF in furtherance of the child survival programme in Nigeria.

The Japaneses Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Ryuichi Shoji, said at the grant signing ceremony in Abuja that the amount was to support polio immunization in the country.

Shoji said: “This was 600 million yen that made at N1.2 billion cheque to support the immunization against polio and we are in very important stage in Nigeria to polio eradication.

“One more serious step we need to eradicate the polio from the this country so we are ready to redouble our effort to go to the end of this road together with Nigerian Government and UNICEF and other partners.”

Shoji said since 1993, there had been a significant reduction in the number of polio cases in the country, adding however, that a lot still needed to be achieved.

The Japanese Ambassador, therefore, called on the Nigerian government to do more to tackle the problem.

In her speech at the ceremony, UNICEF’s representative in Nigeria, Dr Suomi Sakai, said in spite of the country’s effort at reducing child mortality, some existing key challenges needed to be addressed.

She said, once that was done, the country would be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Sakai maintained that the childhood killer diseases were still prevalent, saying that vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, tetanus and whooping cough were among the major causes of child mortality.

She expressed regret that the success in the fight against the wild polio virus achieved in 2010, was lost in 2011.

The UNICEF official said the grant would be used to procure the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to be administered during the immunization campaign.

Part of the funds, according to her, will be used to procure essential drugs (Albendazole tablets for de-worming) for onward distribution during Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.

“The grant is timely and will make significant contribution to Nigeria’s final push to stop the transmission of the wild polio virus and the effort towards strengthening routine immunisation.

“Including expanding the cold chain system for introduction of new vaccine as well as for institutionalising MNCHWs.

The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, who also spoke at the event, promised that the Federal Government would ensure that every child was immunised.

Chukwu urged the state and local governments to map out strategies that would encourage parents to allow their children to be immunised.

“Where we want them to do more at the state and local government level, is just to ensure that every child counts; every household counts.

“How they should be able to convince their people to receive immunisation is what we are asking them to do, if they did that, the battle is as good as won.”