Mark Maloney, Chair of the Rotary International Foundation, has reviewed the foundation’s investment in combating the scourge of poliomyelitis and poliovirus in Nigeria, concluding that it had spent a princely $300m on the enterprise.
The Foundation had embarked on the sustained investment drive since initiating its global immunization efforts to combat polio.
Maloney, the first Chair of the Rotary Foundation to visit Nigeria to assess the organization’s ongoing efforts, also expressed his admiration for the impact of Rotary International’s maternal and child health intervention through a $2 million Programme of Scale grant to Nigeria
Maloney spoke on Thursday in Abuja at the Jahi Primary Health Centre.
In company with his wife, Gay and other Rotary officials, who participated in administering immunizations and presenting souvenirs to children, Maloney reaffirmed Rotary International’s unwavering commitment to eradicating polio in Nigeria.
He said that the country was well-positioned to receive further grants from the organization.
Maloney’s spoke amid growing challenge posed by the variant poliovirus type 2.
The poliovirus type 2 is becoming existential despite the country being declared polio-free in 2020, thus emphasizing the critical need for sustained government focus.
Analysts contend that government focus on dealing with the poliovirus type 2 should be akin to the sustained effort that culminated in the successful eradication of the wild poliovirus.
He said: “Rotary can only do so much as a private organization. We encourage the Nigerian government to redouble its efforts to eliminate variant polio completely, freeing its health programs to tackle other pressing issues.”
Maloney calculated that a significant tranche of funding could be approved during upcoming meetings, despite the pressing needs in countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan where wild polio remained endemic.
He, however, stated that the exact allocation for 2025 remained undecided.
According to him: “There’s $50 million that I expect will be allocated at that meeting, but a lot of it has to go to Pakistan and Afghanistan where the wild poliovirus is still endemic, but I think there will be a significant tranche of funds, maybe not tens of millions, I don’t think it will be that big, but a significant amount of money allocated to Nigeria.”
In addition to its polio eradication efforts, Rotary International is addressing maternal and child health through a $2 million Programme of Scale grant.
The initiative, entitled “Healthy Families in Nigeria,” aims to reduce maternal and infant mortality by increasing the number of births in healthcare facilities.
Maloney said he was impressed with the work Rotary in Nigeria had been doing.
He cited a district where facility-based births rose from 11% to 33% within the programme’s first year.
He said: “Though it is too early to measure the impact on mortality rates, the upward trend in medical facility usage indicates progress.”
Making his intervention, Joshua Hassan, past District Governor and the Chairman of the Nigeria National Polio Plus Committee, said 92 cases of the variant poliovirus type 2 had been reported as of December 2024
According to him, the cases were concentrated in Northwestern states, particularly Kano, Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, and Sokoto.
Hassan said that the persistence of the variant poliovirus was akin to the way mutations occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the necessity of utilitarian responses to rapid outbreak of the poliovirus.
Stressing that Rotary Nigeria is committed to the eradication of the variant like it did the wild poliovirus, Hassan said, “These cases are vaccine-derived or variant strains, and they predominantly affect the northwest region. Our strategy involves swift immunizations to contain and prevent further spread”.
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