The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, yesterday said the Federal Government has administered over 25 million doses of measles vaccine and 22 million yellow fever vaccinations.
Pate disclosed this yesterday in a broadcast on his official X handle, @muhammadpate, highlighting significant gains recorded in immunisation coverage and preventive healthcare delivery nationwide.
“Under this administration, over 25 million measles doses and 22 million yellow fever vaccinations have been administered, alongside Africa’s first Mpox vaccine rollout,” Pate said.
Pate said beyond measles and yellow fever, five million children had received the pentavalent vaccine, while over 10 million Nigerians were vaccinated with the tetanus diphtheria vaccine through the nationwide diphtheria response.
He added that more than one million vaccine doses from the Gavi-funded global stockpile were deployed to support meningitis outbreak control in northern regions. The minister said Nigeria had also taken a historic step in malaria control with the introduction of its first-ever malaria vaccine.
“As the country bearing the world’s highest malaria burden, accounting for approximately 39.3 percent of malaria-related deaths among children under five, deployment of the R21 Matrix-M vaccine marks a major public health milestone,” he said.
Pate explained that the malaria vaccine rollout commenced in Bayelsa and Kebbi states, with Kebbi alone targeting 179,542 children aged five to 15 months. He said Nigeria received one million doses of the malaria vaccine, including 846,200 doses from Gavi and 153,800 financed by the Federal Government, with plans for further scale-up.
According to the minister, Nigeria is increasingly being defined not only by its disease burden but also by leadership in domestic resource mobilisation and global disease control efforts.
He said in 2025, the Federal Government committed 54 million dollars in domestic resources to the global fight against tuberculosis and emerged as the largest African contributor to the Global Fund, as announced at the most recent G20 meeting in Johannesburg.
