The Federal Government yesterday said it would
release N9.8 billion for polio vaccines and other related activities, even as
it unveiled plans to immunise over 56 million children by November 2016.
The N9.8 billion to be released is
exclusive of the N6.5 billion approved by the Ministry of Finance when the
polio crisis started.
The Minister of Health, Isaac
Adewole, who disclosed this at a briefing in Abuja, said the money would be
used to execute the polio response plan developed by the National Primary
Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, and its partners. Adewole, however,
raised alarm that there was high risk of further spread of the virus due to
population movement within and around the states.
The response plan, according to the Minister,
include five rounds of polio campaign, three of which will be focused on 16
northern states and two to be conducted nationwide.
“When
this crisis started, we approached the Minister of Finance for money, and I can
assure you that N6.7 billion will be released from the 2016 budget. “Funding
has actually never been an issue. The issue here has to do with access to this
population.”
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