Nigeria To Eradicate Variant Polio in 2023 -Shettima

Vice President Kashim Shettima, on Thursday, said the President Bola Tinubu-led administration is committed to eradicating variant poliovirus by the end of 2023.

He added that the Federal Government would work with state governments to address concerns around the financing of Nigeria’s primary healthcare system.

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,” Shettima told attendees at a parley with some members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Aliko Dangote and Bill Gates at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja.

The State House Director of Information, Office of the Vice President, Olusola Abiola, disclosed this in a statement he signed Thursday titled; ‘We are going to address the concerns that surround financing our primary healthcare system – VP Shettima.’

The VP, who described polio as one of the major primary healthcare challenges in Nigeria, said, “The proposal is to provide timely domestic financing for the procurement of vaccines, which couldn’t have come sooner, to boosting our industrial capacity to produce vaccines.”

He said 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.