By Asma’u Ahmad
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Dangote Foundation have pledged to support the expansion of routine immunisation of children in Yobe state in 2018.
Mr Bill Gates, the Chairman, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman, Dangote Foundation, pledged to support the expansion of routine immunisation of children in Yobe in 2018.
Mr Bill Gates and Alhaji Aliko Dangote
The chairmen of the foundations, Mr Bill Gates and Alhaji Aliko Dangote, made the pledge on Wednesday in a teleconference on end of year review of routine immunisation in the state monitored in Damaturu, Yobe state.
Gates, who spoke from Seattle, U.S., assured support to the Yobe Government to sustain the campaign against polio. He urged the state government to replicate the 80 per cent coverage recorded in Potiskum Local Government Area to the other 16 local government areas.
Dangote said the support would strengthen community linkage to ensure all eligible children were linked to those facilities. He advised partners to maintain accurate data on coverage to provide holistic monitoring of immunisation coverage in the state.
Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe said the two-year-old Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the state and the two foundations had contributed to the success of immunisation coverage in the state. He assured that the state government would consolidate the gains achieved in the last two years.
“Government has increased budgetary provision in the health sector to fight avoidable diseases, ensure immunisation coverage of Internally Displaced Children and provide functional Primary Healthcare facility in each of the 178 political wards in the state.”
