The Deputy Governor of Kwara State, Mr. Kayode Alabi, has officially flagged off a statewide Integrated Health Campaign, aimed at improving access to essential healthcare services for women and children.
The campaign, which includes the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week (MNCHW), Polio Immunisation, and HPV Vaccination, will run from November 29 to December 3, 2025, across all 16 Local Government Areas of the state.
Speaking at the flag-off ceremony held at the conference hall of his office, Mr. Alabi who also serves as the Chairman of the State Taskforce Committee on Immunisation and Primary Health Care, emphasized that the campaign is designed to promote preventive healthcare and reduce mortality rates among vulnerable populations.
He assured that the committee would engage all local government chairmen under the auspices of ALGON to ensure the timely release of counterpart funds and active participation in the campaign’s activities and meetings.
Also speaking at the event, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amina Ahmed El-Imam, noted that the state government has consistently worked to increase the reach of life-saving vaccines to all eligible children across the state.
She noted that despite successes in integrated polio, measles, and PHC interventions, some challenges still exist, but efforts are ongoing to address them.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the House of Assembly Committee on Health and Nutrition, Ogbeni Seun Ogunniyi, stated that the initiative reflects the government’s strong commitment to universal health coverage.
He expressed optimism that Kwara State would continue to improve on its health indices and maintain its trajectory of growth.
In her address of welcome, the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Professor Nusirat Elelu, stated that the campaign will wrap up the year with the National Immunisation Plus Day (NIPD), which targets children aged 0–59 months with the polio vaccine.
Represented by the Director of Primary Health Care Systems, Dr. Michael Sunday Oguntoye, Professor Elelu disclosed the campaign’s ambitious on maternal newborn and child health week targets over two hundred thousand pregnant women, over eight hundred thousand children aged 0–5 years to receive life-saving interventions such as deworming, Vitamin A supplementation, and other nutrition-sensitive services.
The Executive Secretary added that the HPV Vaccination is targeting girls aged 9 years and above, particularly those who were not reached during the previous campaign.
She therefore expressed concern that some local government chairmen had failed to pay their counterpart funds or attend committee meetings and appealed to the Deputy Governor to intervene to ensure compliance and successful implementation of the programme.
Speaking on behalf of development partners, the World Health Organisation (WHO) representative, Dr Emmanuel Eyitayo, noted that insecurity in some local government areas had hampered health workers’ access to certain communities.
Dr Eyitayo called for strengthened security measures to ensure that no child or mother is left behind.
