Nigeria Solidarity Support Fund (NSSF) has co-signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) to scale up interventions on routine child immunisation with N150 million.

Three states selected for the initiative are: Cross River, Kwara and Ogun.

NSSF Chief Executive Officer, Dr Fejiro Chinye-Nwoko, said the partnership is expected to boost routine child immunisation and check spread of diseases.

She made this known at the signing of the MoU, in Abuja, yesterday.

According to her, “We are bringing the funding. We are funding the vaccination uptake for these three states while NPHCDA are in charge of vaccination and ensuring the states actually conduct vaccination outreaches.

“Accountability is a very important element in donor funding and we are very aware of that. That is why this meeting is critical because we are designing the monitoring and evaluation that would be implemented at national, state and local council levels.”

Director, Disease Control and Immunisation, NPHCDA, Dr. Bassey Okposen, noted that there are states in Nigeria, which are not doing well in terms of routine child immunisation on a quarterly basis; hence, the partnership seeks to bridge that gap and scale up interventions, to ensure immunisation picks up in the states, which are considered very backward.

Recognising the critical role of routine immunisation in safeguarding health and well-being of a nation, the partnership said the collaborative effort is designed to ensure every child has access to life-saving vaccines by conducting outreaches in strategic locations.

The initiative will ensure access to vaccines is improved, particularly, in hard-to-reach communities and places where immunisation coverage is low, thereby closing immunisation gap and protecting vulnerable populations.