Vice President Kashim Shettima has declared that Nigeria is committed to eradicating the polio virus by the end of 2023.
This promise came after billionaire businessman and philanthropist, Bill Gates, reiterated the commitment of his foundation to commit $7 billion to Africa in the next four years.
Also, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, said only concrete decisions by Nigerian leaders would see them to the actualisation of the sustainable development goals.
The billionaires spoke during a meeting attended by some governors under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa on Thursday.
Politics Nigeria recalls that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had said in November 2022 that it was committing $7 billion to Nigeria and other African countries over the next four years.
The foundation said the pledge, which is up 40 per cent on the amount spent during the previous four years, would target many issues, among them hunger, disease, poverty and gender inequality.
It was reported that Nigeria would take a bulk of the grant, promising better financing for the primary healthcare system in the country, especially on polio eradication, and ensuring that every Nigerian child is covered in the routine immunisation campaigns.
Shettima, while speaking at the event, said Nigeria would not relent in its effort to completely put an end to polio by December.
“The proposal is to provide timely domestic financing for the procurement of vaccines, which couldn’t have come sooner, to boost our industrial capacity to produce vaccines,” he said.
While acknowledging the threats facing Nigeria in the area of polio, the vice pesident averred that Nigeria’s three-dose pentavalent vaccine coverage had improved from 33% in 2016 to 57% in 2021.
Shettima commended the states that have achieved high-category immunisation coverage, which is between 60% and 80% of the target demographic and the number of states has expanded from 12 to 21 states in five years.
The vice president expressed the appreciation of the federal government to partners such as Dangote Foundation and that of Bill Gates Foundation, whose empathy, he said, shone through the uncertain period in Nigeria.
Also in his remarks, Dangote stated that Gates and himself had been partnering with both the federal and state governments for several years, supporting the efforts in eradicating polio and improving routine immunisation, nutrition and primary healthcare in the country.
In separate remarks, chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Abdulraman Abdulrasaq and some governors who spoke at the event lauded the philanthropic interventions of the Dangote and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations in critical areas of Nigeria’s economy.
According to a statement by Olusola Abiola, Director of Information, Office of the Vice President, the governors expressed the readiness to further collaborate with the Dangote and Gates Foundation in the coming years.
