By Mary Jalingo
The establishment of Local Government Emergency Routine Immunization Coordinating Center (LGERICC) across the 25 local government areas of Niger State has improve the immunization coverage of the state from 20 percent to 42 percent.
Project Manager, State Emergency Routine Immunization Coordinating Center (SERICC) Dr Ahmed Abdulsalam stated this during a one day joint meeting of SERICC and Coalition of Civil Society and Media on Maternal and Newborn Child In Niger State (COMIN) in collaboration with Center for Communication and Reproductive Health Services – Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health @Scale (CCRHS-PAS) project in Niger State held at the Epid unit last Wednesday.
Gov. Abubakar Sani Bello
Dr Abdulsalam said SERICC came into being as a result of poor RI coverage in the country which was then at 33 percent at the federal level hence an emergency was declared in 18 priority states including Niger State.
He said the objective of its creation was to coordinate RI activities and expected to harmonise, form synergy and speedy resolution of identified challenges and ensure quality of data collection.
The project manager said 50 LGERICC officers whom he described as the foot soldiers across the 25 LGAs in the state were responsible for the day to day activities in the field adding that although 16 LGAs were below the state RI average, the state was making steady progress in ensuring that the supply and demand side of RI activities improve in the state.
Abdulsalam said in the area of vaccine security and supportive supervision which used to be a challenge, the state government and unicef have put in place machinaries to manage the situation.
Speaking also, the Director RI in the State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Fati Sheikh Abdullah said RI was all about the survival of children noting that government can not do everything as all hands must be on deck to improve immunization coverage in the state.
Dr Fati said on the supply side the government was doing its best to ensure no sock out in the state adding that on the demand side, parents must ensure that they avail their children to services noting that if the demand side was weak, the effort of government at the supply chain would be a wasted effort.
She commended COMIN for its effort at senstizing citizens on the importance of accessing RI services and called for greater collaborations.
Also speaking, the co-chair COMIN, Mrs Mary Jalingo commended the state government for its effort in ensuring that children access RI services without stress eapecially those at hard to reach communities with the introduction of outreaches activities
Mrs. Mary said COMIN as a coalition of civil sociey and the media on MNCH in the state said COMIN does strategic advocacy to political actors to influence adequate and transparent spending and timely release of funds in the health sector and also enhance the capacity of the media for improved reportage.
She said the coalition was ready to partner with stakeholders in ensuring quality and affordable healthcare services for citizens noting that health was a right and should be given priority.
