COVID- 19: NGO Donates N305m for Vaccination in Six States

James Sowole in Abeokuta

A non profit private organisation, the Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund (NSSF), has donated a sum of N305 million to the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency ,(NPHCDA), for execution of COVID-19 Vaccination in six states of the federation.

The General Manager/CEO of the NSSF, Dr Fejiro Chinye-Nwoko, disclosed the donation, in Abeokuta, Ogun State at the flag off of Mass Vaccination Programme against COVID- 19.

Chinye-Nwoko said the NSSF was collaborating with the NPHCDA, to help Nigeria recover quickly, from the impact of the COVID 19.

She said, “We have two main objectives for the project. We are supporting health system strenghtening, we are also supporting the vulnerable Nigerians and supporting Nigerian youths.

“NSSF in collaboration with the NPHCDA came on board to discuss challenges with vaccination and vaccine uptake in Nigeria.

“We are also supporting the actual vaccination of Nigerians. Six states were selected because we wanted to start with one million vaccination and instead of concentrating it in one state, we want to spread it across six states. It involves an initial donation of N305 million to NPHCDA to support vaccination to the six states.

“With the NPHCDA, we have also involved in advocacy and campaign. We know that vaccine hesitancy is an issue in Nigeria.

“A lot of people are sceptical about the impact of vaccination in Nigeria.and they are resisting the vaccine. We have been involved in mass vaccination campaign across the country.through use of radio, television, newspapers, digital media and other means of campaign. We are also involved in strategy.”

The General Manager, said findings since the organisation started collaboration with the NOHCDA revealed that more people are interested in knowing more about the vaccine.

“Since we started, more people are coming out to make enquiries to know more about the vaccine while people are actually taking the vaccine. But for now, I cannot give a definite figure of people we have reached or how many people have been vaccinated

“Before the end of the year, we shall give report on the number of people that had been vaccinated and how many people we have campaigned to,” she stated.

The General Manager, admonished the people of Ogun State to embrace the vaccination saying . “We have strong leadership, the governor, who is really at the forefront of the control of COVID-19 and vaccination.

“We have strong deputy governor, and the Commissioner for Health, who are really doing all that they can in terms of strategies and in terms of dissemination of information.”

She advised people to take the advantage of the vaccination and be advocate of the vaccination drive in Ogun State.