According to the recent
press release by World Bank, the World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors has approved a loan of $200 million to help in the fight to eradicate polio and sustain routine immunization of children under five years and women of reproductive age in Nigeria.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Senior Communication Specialist at the World Bank in Abuja, Mr. Obadiah Tohomdet, said the loan request was approved on Friday in Washington D.C, United States.
Tohomdet said the new financing for the Polio Eradication Support Project would assist Nigeria to increase and sustain the coverage of oral polio vaccine immunization, adding that with five more months of zero cases of wild polio virus, the country would have officially interrupted transmission of the disease, which would be a significant milestone toward its eradication.
He also noted that the loan would come from an arm of the World Bank known as the International Development Association.
The Task Team Leader for the Polio Eradication Support Project at the World Bank, Mr. Oluwole Odutolu, said eradicating polio was a global public good because of its epidemic potential and devastating impact on children and adults.
“Polio remains a lethal and crippling disease that is entirely preventable and ending it makes the world a safer place for all children,” he said.
