Kazeem Owoseni
The Federal Government of Nigeria under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has concluded plans to partner Bill and Milinda Gates foundation, in the provision of good primary healthcare system in the country.
This disclosure was made by the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima in an interactive session with the American Billionaire and the co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, during the Governors’ Forum meeting, attended by the Microsoft C.E.O, alongside his business associate, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Dangote Group, at the Banquet Hall of the Presidetial Villa in Abuja, on Thursday.
Speaking at the meeting, Shettima who restated that Polio is one of the Nigeria’s major primary healthcare challenges, revealed the plan to provide timely domestic financing for the procurement of oral polio vaccines in the country.
“The proposal is to provide timely domestic financing for the procurement of vaccines, which couldn’t have come sooner, to boost our industrial capacity to produce vaccines,” Shettima said.
According to the vice president, Federal Government is ready to ensure the diseases is eradicated by the end of the year, noting that every Nigerian child will be covered in the routine immunization campaign by then
“Federal Government is Committed to eradicating variant polio virus by the end of the year, ensuring that every Nigerian child is covered in the routine immunization campaigns,” he said.
However, Bill Gates who had earlier spoke during the meeting, revealed that his foundation had recently committed $7b to African continent in the next four years.
The founder of Microsoft who had an indoor meeting with President Tinubu alongside Dangote on Monday, disclosed that the decision was to support routine immunization program in Nigeria, as well as the global polio eradication initiative in the northern part of the country.
