Kwara Government commends successful implementation of ITN/SMC program

The Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Dr Amina Ahmed El-Imam says the implementation Team of the Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs), and Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), program for 2023, has been successfully completed with incredible success in the state, North Central Nigeria.

The Commissioner expressed these views in Ilorin the State capital, North Central Nigeria during the debriefing programme on the malaria campaign held at the Ministry of Health.

She disclosed that the success recorded during the programme was as a result of several factors, notable among which is the unalloyed and consistent support of the state Governor, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq who approved the counterpart funding for the activity.

Hajia revealed that the governor supported the flag off of the activities with his physical presence, the highlight of which was the demonstration of the net use.

“Additionally, the support of the First Lady of Kwara State, Prof. Olufolake Abdulrazaq, the malaria ambassador, was invaluable.

“It led to increased awareness of uptake in Kwara State of the drug and the nets,” she added.

She expressed appreciation to the Global Fund for it’s generosity of nets and drugs worth billions of naira and other partners who provided technical and other forms of support for the success of the activity.

“I also appreciate the media, members of the SMoH’s malaria program, all other staff of the Ministry of health, the Federal Ministry of Health, SFH, CRS, ICT4D, Chemonics, University of Ilorin, North Western University, USA,” she declared.

Speaking during the debriefing programme, the team lead and Director Technical and Programme of the Society for Family Health (SFH), Mr. John Ocholi disclosed that a total number of 7,618 trained personnel were deployed for the just concluded integrated mass campaign on Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC)/Insecticide Treated Nets (ITN) to eliminate Malaria in the state.

According to him, the personnel were trained across all cadres for effective SMC-ITN administration and distribution.

Some of the trained personnel included supervisors, technical assistants in state and local governments, warehouse managers, training technology administrators, town announcers, recorder, distributor and dispensers, lead mothers, campaign monitoring team, integrated campaign coordinating network (ICCN), media personnel and civil society organizations, among others.

The team lead also said that the personnel saw to effective monitoring and supervision of the integrated distribution and administration process, “using complements of national, state, local government area level personnel, including ICCN members.

In the report presented, based on the integrated campaign platform, it was gathered that a total number of 2,356,624 ITNs were distributed among a total number of 771,035 households that were reached and mobilized.

While he said that the distribution of the nets was ongoing, Ocholi added that actual number of nets distributed was 2,376,257, representing 99 per cent distribution.

He also described administration rate of SPAQ as 89.5 per cent, saying that a total number of SPAQ distributed was 573,841.

“Total number of children reached in cycle 4 is 504,106, and total number of SPAQ 1 administered in cycle 4 is 104,319, while total number of SPAQ 2 administered in cycle 4 is 469,522,” he said.

He said that some other activities of the campaign included advocacy to Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, investiture of the Malaria Ambassador on the wife of the state governor, Ambassador Professor Olufolake AbdulRazaq, advocacies to relevant stakeholders at all levels (political, traditional, community and religious leaders), adding that the activities increased participation and ownership of the campaign process.

It would be recalled that a total number of 2,914,800 ITNs and 2,956,385 SPAQ were procured, while 2,912,809 ITNs and 2,956,385 SPAQ were received for the 2023 Kwara state ITNs/SMC mass campaign.