The Nigerian Presidential Steering Committee on Covid-19 in Collaboration With the Federal Ministry of Health and National Primary Health Care Development Agency Supported by Donors and Partners has celebrated the success story of Covid-19 vaccination in Nigeria under the distinguished chairmanship of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Barr Boss Mustapha.
The SGF says Nigeria received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccines on the second of March and launched the Covid-19 vaccination on the fifth of March 2020, he said he was confident that Nigeria will overcome the global pandemic.
Mr. Boss Mustapha who was represented by the Honorable Minister of state for health Hon. Ekumankama Joseph during the celebration in Abuja the nation’s capital said his confidence was heaped in three main factors, to the commitment and determination of President Muhammadu Buhari to save Nigerians from the scourge of the pandemic.
“The Federal Government through the NPHCDA was ready to provide all the resources needed to vaccinate our eligible target populations against the deadly virus, secondly, the track record of the NPHCDA as a high-performing agency of the federal government. Our celebration today is a testament to these facts and the third reason was the support and understanding of our fellow countrymen and women, our partners and donors”. He said.
The SGF and chairman of the Covid-19 steering committee express satisfaction and thank all Nigerians, especially those who despite the rumors and misinformation still trusted the Nigerian government in taking the novel vaccines, he said Nigeria will ever remain grateful to its donors and partners.
The Executive Director Dr. Faisal Shuaib says since the index case of Covid-19 in Nigeria in February 2020, they have implemented different anti-Covid-19 mitigations and containment strategies through sustained partnership and collaboration with its partners and stakeholders.
Dr. Faisal said the agency’s achievement wouldn’t have been possible without a very strong and commendable leadership shown by honorable commissioners for health and executive secretaries of the state primary health center.
“We achieve all this because of the leadership shown, if they have not shown leadership to make sure that we translate strategies from the national level to actual operations, they wouldn’t have been here, they have been the silent drivers at the operational level, making sure sometimes even when they don’t agree with our policies, they still went ahead and implemented them just because they had faith in our ability to do the right thing”. He said.
Dr. Shuaib said the celebration of Covid-19 Milestone Achievements in Nigeria is a win-win situation not only for the government of Nigeria and its partners but for traditional and religious leaders, civil society Organization, the private sector and the media for partnering with the agency to leverage on their platforms to sensitize the public.
“We look forward to sustaining the gains beyond the Covid-19 pandemic as we adopt an integrated approach to PHC services to achieve Universal health coverage”, he added.
The US Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard said three years ago when the Covid-19 pandemic began, countries finds its selves in uncharted waters, and from the earliest phase of the National Covid-19 response, the US government proudly partnered with Nigerian public health experts and national leadership as they navigated that storm here in Nigeria.
“Today we have emerged from the eye of that storm and can reflect on how far we have traveled and all we have achieved since the beginning of our vaccination efforts in March 2021, this unprecedented effort spearheaded by the NPHCDA has resulted in the full vaccination of over 15 million Nigerians an issue for congratulations”. She said.
The US ambassador said countries faced so many challenges along the way and continue to face challenges, including how best to navigate low vaccine availability and once they had sufficient quantities, how to quickly deploy vaccines to all 36 states and the FCT.
“Through our collective persistence and our partnership with the government of Nigeria and other donors, we have made tremendous progress and overcome so many obstacles; much of the credit goes to NPHCDA, who rose to the challenge of vaccinating 112 million Nigerians against Covid-19. They did this by mobilising resources and partners around the strategy that focused on three areas, providing critical vaccination commodities to build capacity for installation, maintenance of coal change, storage and vaccine logistics and three mobilising public support for vaccination.
She said the United States government in partnership with NPHCDA and the development partner group recognises the importance of that strong leadership and the power of leveraging financial, technical and logistic resources from our array of partners including the state and community level.
“To amplify efforts, the United States Government contributed $400 billion to the global banks to support administration doses through Gabby’s Codex mechanism, which supported vaccine procurement. We advocated strongly for Nigeria to access some of these additional resources through global baps knowing that they could have a wide-reaching impact.
Since December 2021, the US government has contributed over 32 point 6 million vaccine doses and about $66.7 million in support of vaccine service delivery. Global bank’s resources enable the acceleration of sub-National Vaccine logistics.
“To date, the US has supported the distribution of about 33 point 4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from the state from the National to the state level and 44 point 6 million doses from the state to the LGA level, demonstrating the enormous coordination required and successfully carried out delivery is just one component. However, the government and partners also rolled out mass campaign activities to ensure proper supervision and oversight scrutinise the data and continue to tailor messages and approaches to cancer vaccine hesitancy, mitigate severe Covid-19 outcomes and ultimately curtail the epidemic. Another key component to a successful campaign is an effective supply chain and logistics.
When the first batch of donated vaccines arrived in 2021. Health Workers raised concerns about storage capacity, especially in rural areas. Today, over 9500 Primary Health Care Centers have whole chain equipment, which prepares Nigeria also to handle future emergencies. However, none of this would have been possible without the political commitment from the technical leadership of NPHCDA, NCDC the Federal Ministry of Health, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and control, the presidential steering committee and the state governors and their health commissioners”. She added. Recall that recently the Nigerian government approved the relaxation of Safety Measures and Travel Advisory on covid-19 as a result of the declining cases of COVID-19 and the steady increase in vaccination coverage in Nigeria.
Dominica Nwabufo
