COVID-19: Nigeria May Not Meet March Vaccination Target, Stakeholders Say

Onyebuchi Ezigbo

Nigeria’s expectation to vaccinate at least 50 per cent of her eligible population against the COVID-19 virus by the end of March this year may not be realised, some stakeholders have said.

The fears were expressed by stakeholders during an assessment meeting on the progress and challenges facing COVID-19 vaccination exercise in the northern states, organised by the Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in Abuja.

As at February 12, 2022, the National Primary HealthCare Development Agency (NPHCDA) disclosed that 16,386,339 persons had gotten their first dose of the vaccine in the country, while 6,878,770 had received their second dose.

Factors such as vaccine hesitancy, poor leadership role by some state Chief executives and rising insecurity were listed as some of the things limiting the progress of the vaccination exercise.

At the meeting which had Commissioners of Health in all the northern states of Nigeria and heads of relevant agencies in attendance, participants presented their success cards as well as x-rayed the challenges and strategies to surmount them.

The meeting was meant to share experiences on covid19 vaccination exercise in the states and explore ways of improving the vaccine uptake.

Speaking to THISDAY on his assessment of the vaccination exercise, the Deputy Director, Macarthur Foundation in Nigeria, one of the development partners, Dayo Olaide said whereas the campaign was proceeding well, the patronage was still very low.

He said a lot factors were responsible for the differences in success rate recorded by the states.

“From the experiences shared here by the states, there are a couple of things that you can point to that is working well. In states where the leadership has shown commitment, we can see that just by the symbolic of the state governors, members of the cabinet and the legislature by coming out publicly to take the vaccine, has sent the right signals to the citizens and think that has made a lot of differences in these states.

“Similarly, we also found out that having a multi-stakeholder approach that is inclusive and involves traditional rulers, women organisations and members of the civil society groups, that has also enabled the vaccine drive to function well,” he said.

However, Olaide noted that even when the vaccine roll out was said to be proceeding well, the patronage was still very low.

According to him, the need to improve on the speed of vaccination was what the stakeholders meeting intended to achieve.

“For now, hesitancy remained a major challenge. We heard some states say that some of them have difficulties in accessing or getting enough vaccine but a significant number actually said there is enough vaccines in their states.

“The NPHCDA has been quite innovative, going round the states to mop up vaccine doses and to make them available to those states that need them,” he added.

He also noted that there has been an effective synergy between the NPHCDA and state primary healthcare boards as other ministries and agencies in the health sector.

“But there is hesitancy among health workers, hesitancy among the public and some form of hesitancy among the leadership are perhaps the biggest stumbling blocks to this vaccination campaign,” he added.

On whether he thinks that March target date set by federal government for the achievement of 70 percent vaccination of eligible population could be attained, he said: “Going by the figures that those states are rolling out, because it’s going to be a totality of figures from these states that will tell us whether or not the target would be met. If we are hearing 12 per cent and 16 per cent in some states and some states recording about four per cent, I think the gap is quite huge.

“We are still a long way ahead and a lot more will have to be done between now and next month, March, for that high target that the government set to realise.”

Olaide said a lot of inefficiencies would have to be addressed, in addition to using available data to plan ahead.

The Director Disease Control in Kaduna state, Hamza Ibrahim, while giving the situation report of the vaccination exercise in the state said the campaign had gone far despite initial challenges.

“We are doing well because all the strategic machineries have been deployed, all the relevant agencies were also deployed to carry out the exercise. We have taken the vaccination campaign to the motor parks and religious worship centres using mobile vaccination teams.

“Also all the local council chairmen have taken the lead in having themselves and their families vaccinated,” he added.

Zamfara State Commissioner for Health, Aliyu Abubakar said despite security challenges confronting the state, it has been able to record an impressive performance in the vaccination campaign.

He explained: “About 272,815 persons have vaccinated first dose while 72,321 persons have taken their second dose of the vaccines.”

He also said 16,170 persons have been given booster jabs.

He further said the state had set a target to vaccinate a total of 2,216,000 persons by the end March this year.

Abubakar attributed the high success rate recorded by the state to the exemplary leadership shown by the governor of the state and other top government functionaries.

Organisers of the assessment meeting, described it as very successful, adding that it had enabled commissioners to compare notes to seek strategies to further improve on the vaccination drive.

He said apart from regular assessment meetings, the organisation also holds training programmes for health workers within the northern states to help improve healthcare services.