3m infants, mothers get incentives to increase vaccine uptake

More than three million infants and nursing mothers in northern Nigeria have received cash incentives as part of efforts to boost vaccine uptake.

Mubarak Bawa, the Operations Coordinator of the New Incentives All Babies are Equal programme, disclosed this during a state and local government area award ceremony held over the weekend in Kano to honour outstanding individuals.

He said the programme spans nine states and over 48,000 settlements, enroling over three million infants.

He said the programme has demonstrated significant effectiveness in reducing under-5 morbidity and mortality, increasing the percentage of fully immunised infants, and raising awareness about the importance of vaccinations.

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He said in Kano State, the programme operates in over 90 per cent of government-owned hospitals providing routine immunisation across the 44 LGAs.

Meanwhile, five local government areas in Sokoto State have been honoured for their outstanding performance in routine immunisation in 2023.

Illela LGA received the Best Enrolment Award, Binji LGA was recognised with the Panta Retention Award, and Tambuwal LGA secured the Best Immunisation Activities Award.

Gwadabawa LGA was awarded for Best Vaccine Supply, while Sokoto-North LGA earned the Best Documentation Award.

Ibrahim Rabi’u, the Operation Coordinator of New Incentives/All Babies Are Equal in Sokoto said the financial incentives provided to mothers, resulted in the enrolment of an additional 118,000 babies in routine immunisation programmes in the state.

He said N346 million had been disbursed across 18 out of the 23 LGAs, facilitating over 1.5 million vaccinations in Sokoto State.

Dr Larai Tambuwal, the Executive Secretary of the Sokoto State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, commended New Incentives for their support and urged them to extend their intervention to hard-to-reach areas affected by poor terrain and insecurity.

During the ceremony held over the weekend, the awarded local government areas were presented with a cheque of N150,000 each in recognition of their achievements.