Nigeria beneficiary of Rotary Foundation funding, says Official

Dr Victor Onukwugha, the former District Governor of Rotary International’s District 9125, says Nigeria has been a beneficiary of Rotary Foundation in terms of funding.

Onukwugha said this in Abuja during a media conference to announce the advocacy visit of the foundation’s Trustee Chair, Mr Mark Maloney to Nigeria.

According to him, the country benefitted immensely from the organisation’s polio eradication programme.

He recalled that before now, Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan were the three countries seriously suffering from polio.

He added that through donations from over 200 countries where the organisation operates, monies were donated to Rotary Foundation to fight polio.

He explained that, “Nigeria had been polio-free since 2016, but was formally certified in 2020.

“A couple of months ago, the Nigeria National PolioPlus Committee made a donation of 14 million dollars to government, in continuation of the services we are rendering.”

He said it was the same foundation that first sponsored research into polio vaccines that saved a whole lot of people in the world.

He said that, “Currently, the only two countries that are still not free from polio are Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“However, by God’s grace, through concerted efforts, our desire is to ensure that in the next few years, polio is totally eradicated from the surface of the earth.”

Explaining the foundation’s classes of grants, he said there are district grants, global grants and disaster funds.

The former rotary governor added that the organisation recently added the Programme of Scale, which only three countries in the world, including Nigeria have benefited from.

According to him, the Nigerian fund of the programme which is about two million dollars is channelled toward maternal and child care.

Onukwugha, who is the Chairman of the Committee, Trustee Chair’s visit to Nigeria, said that Maloney would visit Abuja between Jan. 15 and Jan. 18 and be in Lagos from Jan. 18 to Jan. 20.

Maloney will embark on advocacy, carry out symbolic immunisation, visit the Programme of Scale, and also visit President Bola Tinubu.