Experts brainstorm on Trust Fund to fill funding gap in vaccine

A meeting of top health experts and legislators from five Anglophone countries is to finalise framework to set up an “Immunisation Trust Fund” to help pay for and make immunisation sustainable in Africa. The three-day meeting next week in Abuja of officials from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Liberia and Sierra Leone—all countries considered to have poor […]

A meeting of top health experts and legislators from five Anglophone countries is to finalise framework to set up an “Immunisation Trust Fund” to help pay for and make immunisation sustainable in Africa.

The three-day meeting next week in Abuja of officials from Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Liberia and Sierra Leone—all countries considered to have poor funding for immunisation—will develop recommendations to achieve the immunisation trust fund in Nigeria and map a template for it to be implemented in the four others.

Dr Ben Anyene, head of the National Immunisation Financing Task Team, NIFT, says the outcomes of the meeting are “expected to launch all five countries toward final advocacy for the legislation and establishment of immunisation trust fund.”

The fund is to serve as an independent body to advocate, coordinate and mobilize funds for routine and supplemental immunisation for 2016 and beyond, Anyene explained.

It is hoped the fund will raise contribution from government, organised private sector, partners and willing Nigerians to bridge gaps in funding for immunisation.

The funding gap could reach as high as N40 billion by 2020, when all support from the Global Vaccine Alliance Initiative—which co-pays for Nigeria’s vaccines—completely runs out.

National Primary Health Care Development Agency, which set up NIFT last year to consider alternative sources to fund immunisation, says the cost of full immunisation is expected to rise when it includes at least four new vaccines into routine immunisation.

At present, full immunisation N4,000 annually per child, but the introduction of four new vaccines could push the cost up to N14,000—totallying $435 million a year, up from $274 million, according to the agency’s executive director Dr Muhammad.

“Domestic funding for immunisation has to increase,” said Ado. “Domestic funding from Anglophone countries is not as expected…Government alone cannot do it.”