By Blessing Bature
The Federal Government has intensified collaboration with traditional institutions in Northern Nigeria to tackle the country’s growing zero-dose child challenge, with an estimated 2.1 million children yet to receive routine immunisation and other essential primary healthcare services.
The renewed push was announced on Wednesday by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, during the Quarterly Review Meeting of the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee on Primary Health Care (NTLCC). The meeting brought together traditional rulers, government officials, development partners and health experts to assess progress in routine immunisation, polio eradication and the delivery of primary healthcare services across the 19 northern states.
Pate said the country’s greatest obstacle was no longer vaccine supply but ensuring that every eligible child, particularly those in underserved communities, received life-saving vaccines. He identified vaccine hesitancy, insecurity, population movement and hard-to-reach settlements as major factors preventing children from accessing immunisation.
He urged traditional rulers to strengthen community engagement by identifying missed settlements, encouraging parents to embrace routine vaccination and addressing misconceptions surrounding immunisation. “No nation can achieve meaningful industrialisation without a strong base of technicians, technologists, artisans, fabricators, automation specialists, machine operators and other skilled professionals,” he said.
Pate praised the traditional leaders for helping increase public confidence in vaccination programmes, noting that their influence had enabled millions of families to access immunisation and other essential health interventions. He acknowledged Nigeria’s continued wild polio-free status and improvements in routine immunisation, antenatal care and skilled birth attendance, but warned that the resurgence of circulating variant poliovirus in some high-risk states remains a major concern.
The minister also revealed that Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has approved close to $500 million to support Nigeria’s immunisation programme between 2026 and 2030, with about $345 million earmarked for vaccine procurement and additional funding to strengthen cold-chain systems and primary healthcare infrastructure.
Also speaking, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Muyi Aina, said recent health surveys indicated gradual improvements in routine immunisation coverage nationwide. He disclosed that coverage for the second dose of the Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV2) rose by 10.5 percentage points within a year, while coverage for the third dose of the pentavalent vaccine increased from about 53 per cent to 54.5 per cent.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) Country Representative, Dr. Pavel Ursu, said Nigeria still has about 2.1 million zero-dose children, while only 57 per cent of children aged between 12 and 23 months are fully immunised. He expressed concern over the North-West, where full immunisation coverage remains at 41.5 per cent and nearly three in every 10 children have never received routine vaccines. Ursu therefore called on traditional rulers to intensify efforts to identify underserved communities, counter misinformation and improve vaccine acceptance.
