SNAP ANALYSIS
Nigeria surpasses 30% COVID-19 Vaccination Milestone
Geneva, 30 January 2023 – Nigeria has maintained a sustained COVID-19 Vaccination rollout in recent months to surpass the milestone of fully vaccinating 30 percent of its total population.
The increase from less than 3 per cent coverage with a primary series in January 2022 to over 30 per cent in January 2023 is a result of dedicated efforts by the government and stakeholders in rolling out relevant strategies to sustain COVID-19 vaccination amidst competing health priorities.
Key drivers behind the success of this year’s drive include leadership and improved coordination at the local, state and national level as well as innovation such as increase of mobile vaccination sites.
With more teams being supported to take the vaccines to communities, rather than wait for visits to facilities, missed opportunities are being reduced.
The country also adopted a strategy to track the performance of the vaccination teams in the various states through the daily call-in data. Performance of states are being ranked, and this is disseminated daily on social media and provides healthy competition across the states.
Nigeria has also set up COVID-19 Crisis Communication Center (CRICC) at the national and state levels ensured targeted demand generation activities were adopted and rolled out across the country
Nigeria has maintained COVID-19 vaccine rollout through campaigns and initiatives with the support of stakeholders including Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. COVAX, which Gavi co-leads with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), WHO and UNICEF has supplied over 91 million COVID-19 vaccines to Nigeria (about 65% of all vaccines received) and over 669 Million to the African continent.
The country has also developed an integrated micro-plan featuring routine immunization alongside COVID-19 vaccinations with a bottom-up approach taking into account individual state’s plans.
The country has also integrated a service delivery approach with teams empowered to provide multiple arrays of services – COVID-19 vaccination, routine immunization ensuring that other key health services were not neglected.
Dr. Richard Mihigo, Director of COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery, Coordination and Integration at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which leads on procurement and delivery at scale for COVAX, comments on Nigeria’s progress:
“Nigeria has become a case study on how to roll out COVID-19 vaccines at scale and speed and at the same time, catch up on routine immunization programmes. The country’s surveillance systems are efficient and precise, enabling monitoring of trends as well as promptly responding to counter vaccine misinformation increasing acceptability of the vaccines.
To ensure continued momentum, Gavi in December approved a new round of COVID-19 vaccine delivery support (CDS) availing $27.7m, which will go to further accelerate the rollout of vaccines.
Gavi is proud to support Nigeria’s efforts and congratulates it on the progress it has made to date on protecting its population.”
Please feel free to quote. For further comments, questions, or interviews: media@gavi.org
Pictures and other information related to the start of the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria are available here and here.
*Source: WHO COVID-19 Dashboard
Facts and Figures:
COVAX has since 1.8 billion doses shipped, ensuring all countries have COVID19 vaccines to protect their populations.
The 92 lower-income countries supported by the Gavi COVAX Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) have reached now an average of 52% coverage with a primary series vaccination (two doses) of COVID-19 vaccines – meaning nearly 2 billion people have been protected – vital progress towards closing the vaccine equity gap.
In January 2022, coverage across the 92 AMC-supported countries stood at 31% on average, with 34 countries below 10%. Today only 7 countries – all representing fragile and conflict settings with complex systemic challenges – remain below 10%.
Through the COVID-19 Vaccine Delivery Partnership, launched by Gavi, WHO and UNICEF, COVAX has been providing tailored support to the countries below 10% coverage, helping them overcome delivery bottlenecks.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has been supporting immunization in Africa since 2000. Read about the impact of our work in Africa here and our work in Nigeria over two decades, here.
For expert insights and original content and stories from around the world, visit Gavi’s online digital platform Vaccines Work.
Notes to editors
About Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance is a public-private partnership that helps vaccinate half the world’s children against some of the world’s deadliest diseases. Since its inception in 2000, Gavi has helped to immunise a whole generation – over 981 million children – and prevented more than 16.2 million future deaths, helping to halve child mortality in 73 lower-income countries. Gavi also plays a key role in improving global health security by supporting health systems as well as funding global stockpiles for Ebola, cholera, meningococcal and yellow fever vaccines. After two decades of progress, Gavi is now focused on protecting the next generation, above all the zero-dose children who have not received even a single vaccine shot. The Vaccine Alliance employs innovative finance and the latest technology – from drones to biometrics – to save millions more lives, prevent outbreaks before they can spread and help countries on the road to self-sufficiency. Learn more at www.gavi.org and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
Gavi is a co-convener of COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, together with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF. In its role, Gavi is focused on procurement and delivery for COVAX: coordinating the design, implementation and administration of the COVAX Facility and the Gavi COVAX AMC and working with its Alliance partners UNICEF and WHO, along with governments, on country readiness and delivery.
The Vaccine Alliance brings together developing country and donor governments, the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank, the vaccine industry, technical agencies, civil society, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other private sector partners. View the full list of donor governments and other leading organisations that fund Gavi’s work here.
