FG BEGINS BUILDING OF MORE HUBS TO BOOST VACCINE STORAGE

By AKOR SYLVESTER-Abuja

In an effort to boost immunisation and ensure proper storage of vaccines from donors, the federal government yesterday , commenced the building of additional vaccine hub in the country.

The minister of health, Osagie Ehanire who performed the ground breaking of the Abuja Hub at the National Strategic Cold Store Thursday said the  effort was to expand vaccine storage capacity at the federal level.

He expressed satisfaction over the event to mark the commencement of the Abuja hub, one of the three mega  stores planned for Abuja, Lagos and Kano for the purpose of massively expanding vaccine storage capacity at the national level in Nigeria.

The minister noted that ‘Nigeria is a large country and continuously increasing population coupled with introduction of new and essential vaccines.

“This requires that we have sufficient storage space for vaccines and injection materials for efficient implementation of our immunization programme.

“The supply chain challenges highlighted by COVID-19 vaccination effort also underlines the need for massive expansion of storage space which will confer a measure of resilience in the system.

“In recognition of the need for resilience in the system, the country following detailed analysis decided on a system redesign which includes construction of three mega stores at the national level, deployment of optimised cold chain equipment at the health facilities, an efficient distribution system and the deployment of an electronic logistics management information system to provide visibility across the supply chain.

“This ground-breaking ceremony is a significant milestone of the system redesign journey. GAVI’s support in funding of the construction of two of the three mega stores Abuja and Kano hubs is therefore much appreciated.

“I consider it a privilege that I have the duty to break ground for the construction of this vital piece of infrastructure for the country’s immunization programme

Speaking, the Executive Director of NPHCDA Faisal Shuaib said the agency inherited an intractable problem of a perennial lack of storage space, especially for vaccines and injection materials, which led to an inefficient supply chain for vaccines and other health commodities.

He said: “There was simply insufficient space to store procured and dearly needed commodities. So, the Department of Logistics and Health Commodities, with technical support from the National Logistics Working Group had to be content with fragmented shipments of requirement into the country.

“This led to multiple shipments over the years with attendant exorbitant operational costs.

“The logistics team in the country had developed a strategic system design plan to address the challenges in immunization Supply Chain.

“The plan was reviewed with technical support from the Gavi integrated supply Chain 2 (iSC2) team which visited the country in July 2019. This plan included massive storge capacity expansion at the national level through construction of three megastores in Abuja, Lagos and Kano (the 3-Hub project), optimal CCE and management practices at the state level, adequacy of cold chain storage space at the point of service delivery through implementation of a policy of “at least one functional and optimized CCE in each of the country’s political ward” a project which benefited from the Gavi Cold Chain Equipment Optimization Platform support and a system for visibility across the levels of the supply chain through deployment of an efficient electronic Logistics management Information System, the OpenLMIS again with Gavi funding support.

“This strategic plan however could not take off due to a lack of the required resources.

“Fully cognizant of the necessity for implementation of these planned activities, we made funding provision for the Lagos Hub within a World Bank IDA Credit facility for Polio Eradication support. Work has commenced in earnest on the construction of the Lagos Hub with the World Bank also supporting oversight of the construction process”,.