WHO Plans to Quit Funding Polio Eradication in Africa by 2022

The World Health Organisation Country Representative for Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo, has said Nigeria and other African countries would no longer receive fund given to support polio eradication activities from January 2022.

According to him, 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.

He was quoted as saying that, “With the declaration of Africa as polio-free, the continent is being taken off the list of priority area 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, however, called for improved funding for disease control programmes and primary health care in Nigeria.

The WHO boss added that adequate funding at the state and area council levels would help strengthen and improve immunization services.

Mulombo also said the FCT had the highest containment, the highest testing rate per million as well as a high vaccination rate of 2.1% of the targeted population, describing it as one of the highest in Nigeria and even in the world.

He attributed the feat to the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 and the robust outbreak response set up by the FCT minister.

FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello, assured stakeholders that emphasis would be placed on budgetary, support and counterpart funding in order to improve funding for WHO and other public health-related programmes.