American billionaire, Bill Gates, has said his foundation has set aside $7 billion to Africa in the next four years to support the eradication of Polio in Nigeria.
Also, African richest man, Aliko Dangote added that Bill Gates and himself had been collaborating with the Nigerian Govenment for several years, in the fight against Polio.
He also notes that they have supported routine immunisation, nutrition and primary healthcare in Nigeria.
The duo made this disclosure on Thursday during a meeting with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Bill Gates said, “We genuinely believe that the National Economic Council (NEC) and the decisions that you will make over the next four years will determine whether Nigeria has sound economic growth, keeps its citizens happy and achieves the sustainable development goals.”
Speaking at the parley, the chairman of NGF, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq acknowledged the philanthropic interventions of Dangote and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundations to the country.
The governors gave assurance that they would continue to collaborate with the business moguls in other critical areas such education, human capital development and agriculture.
At the event, Vice President Kashim Shettima said, “We are going to address the concerns that surround the financing of our primary healthcare system in the country.”
He stated that the country is in the frotline of primary healthcare challenges as evidenced by prevalence of Polio and furthered that “the proposal is to provide timely domestic financing for the procurement of vaccines, which couldn’t have come sooner, to boosting our industrial capacity to produce vaccines.”
Shettima who admitted the prevalence of Polio in Nigeria, said thay Nigeria’s three dose pentavalent vaccine coverage has improved from 33 percent in 2016 to 57 percent in 2021.
He stated further that “the variant polio virus has declined in Nigeria by 84 percent from 2021, falling to fewer than 200 cases in 2022. He therefore commended the states that have achieved high category immunization coverage, which is between 60% and 80% of the target demographic and the number of states has expanded from 12 to 21 states in five years.”
