By OjomA Akor
Nigeria’s National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) says a total of 1,256,791 children across four states have been vaccinated against malaria.
Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Tuesday, Executive Director of the agency, Dr. Muyi Aina, said a total of 984,559 children have received at least one dose of the malaria vaccine in Kebbi and Bayelsa states. At the same time, 166,342 vaccinations and 105,890 vaccinations were recorded in Ondo and Bauchi states, respectively.
The vaccine is being administered to children aged five months to 15 months. In October 2024, the federal government of Nigeria received 1 million doses of the R21/Matrix-M malaria vaccine donated by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The immunization exercise was rolled out in Kebbi and Bayelsa on December 2 of the same year.
Dr. Aina said the vaccination exercise was expanded to Bauchi and Ondo states, adding that about 600,000 doses of the vaccine remain in storage.
He stated that the agency was trying to address the challenge of having to bring people back for the vaccine four times.
The NPHCDA DG also said that Nigeria spends approximately $150 million annually to procure vaccines. He highlighted that vaccines are funded from allocations from the federal government and development partners.
He added, however, that donor support is shrinking and that countries are expected to mobilize more domestic funding for vaccines.
While describing 2026 as a year of consolidation, Dr. Aina said: “It is a year of scaling up and ensuring that we get meaningful and measurable impact of the key reforms and initiatives to Nigeria.”
He said,” Our strategic focus remains what it was from the beginning, which is to deliver quality primary health care services equitably, to enhance performance and accountability across all the stakeholders, and to strengthen frontline workforce capacity, strengthen infrastructure for primary health care, but to ultimately improve trust in the system that we’re trying to build. I am proud and happy to say that, as many of you will testify, these reforms are already starting to yield significant results.”
He added that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has created an enabling environment for the NPHCDA reforms.
