The Federal Government says its has re-negotiated the co-financing arrangement for vaccines with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) with a view to ensuring a smooth transition to full country ownership.
The Minister of Health Dr. Osagie Ehanire disclosed this on Thursday at the launching of the Maiden edition of the Nigeria Vaccine policy and the Launch of the National Drug Policy in Abuja.
He said the negotiation has led to the signing of the Nigeria Strategy for Immunisation and PHC System Strengthening (NSIPSS) between the Federal government and GAVI.
He said the NSIPSS serves as the basis for the extension of GAVI support to 2028 adding that an Accountability Framework (AF) was developed to guide the implementation of the NSIPSS.
Dr. Ehanire said the most salient aspect of the AF is that the Federal Government must provide incremental funds from budgetary sources on a yearly basis culminating in 100% funding for vaccine procurement by 2028, adding that the government is well committed to this implementation.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health Mahmuda Mamman in his remark, said the vaccines were recognised globally for the importance in the reduction of vaccine preventable diseases in order to improve the quality of life of the entire population.
He said the importance of vaccines had been further demonstrated with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with countries scrambling to produce vaccines to combat the effect of the pandemic amongst their citizens.
Mamman expressed hope that the development of this policy will complement the already existing Immunisation policy and provide the platform for the amelioration of vaccine preventable diseases in Nigeria.
On his part the Country Representative of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Dr. Walter Mulombo represented by the Cordinator Strategic Health Policy and Planning of the WHO Dr. Claudia Vivas said, the effort to increase local production capacity for essential medicines and vaccines is well appreciated.
she said the policy will reduce the incident of substandard products noting that all hands must be on deck for the implementation of this policy for achievement of its objectives.
Dr. Vivas assured that the monitoring and implementation strategist will ensure that they are on track in achieving the objectives.
