FG begins construction of Vaccine Hubs in Abuja, Lagos, Kano

By Deborah Onyofufeke, Abuja
The Federal Government has commenced the construction of vaccine hubs in three states in the country, Abuja, Lagos and Kano, for the purpose of massively expanding vaccine storage capacity at the national level in Nigeria.

Prior to the commencement of this project, the National strategic cold store in Abuja was the only hub for receiving about 250 shipments of vaccines per annum.

With the remodel of the National strategic cold store, NSCS, and construction of two new hubs in Lagos and Kano, the combined capacity is expected to accommodate vaccine volumes needed for Nigeria’s children through 2035.

Speaking in Abuja at the ground breaking ceremony, theMinister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, said because of Nigeria’s ever growing large population, it has become a necessity for thecountry’s storage space to be expanded.

He added that the ground-breaking ceremony was a significant milestone of the system redesign journey while he thanked GAVI for their support in funding of the construction of two of the three mega stores which is Abuja and Kano hubs.

He said: “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.

“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.”

Also speaking, the Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr Faisal Shuaib, said when he’s management came on board in 2017, they were met with 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.

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He added that there was simply insufficient space to store procured and dearly needed commodities.

He said following this challenge at hand at the time, theDepartment 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 storage 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. I must acknowledge the support of the Honorable Minister of Health in facilitating the negotiations that led to provision of space within the premises of Federal Central Medical Stores Oshodi for the Lagos Hub”.

He stated that the Funding for the Abuja Hub and the Kano Hub are being provided by the Gavi Alliance within the country’s Health System strengthening (HSS) support.

While he noted that the journey to the point they are now has been a long and arduous one, he acknowledge the technical support of the UNICEF Supply Division in reviewing the designs of the Hubs as well as in provision of procurement services support.

“Here I must milestone in the journey towards achievement of our shared objective.

“The procurement processes for the engagement of competent vendors for the Kano Hub project have commenced, and we expect to break ground on that project too in a short while.

“Meanwhile, the deployment of the eLMIS system is ongoing as expected. The country’s supply chain system redesign is progressing satisfactorily, again with the strong political support from the highest level of government and the untiring support of our implementing and donor partners.”