By Haruna Gimba
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said Nigeria and other African countries would no longer receive funds to support polio eradication activities from January 2022.
Country Representative for Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo who disclosed this said Nigeria and other countries on the continent had been removed from the priority list having been declared polio-free.
A statement by the Chief Press Secretary of the FCT Minister, Anthony Ogunleye, on Thursday, quoted Mulombo as saying this when he led a delegation of the WHO to update the minister on key public health issues.
“With the declaration of Africa as polio-free, the continent is being taken off the list of priority areas that the global polio eradication will support and by January of 2022, there will not be substantial funding to support polio eradication activities.
“Nigeria however needs to continue those activities to maintain a polio-free status until such a time that global eradication of the disease is achieved,” he was quoted as saying.
FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello, assured stakeholders that emphasis would be placed on budgetary, support and counterpart funding to improve funding for WHO and other public health-related programmes.
