The World Health Organization (WHO) has said from January 2022, Nigeria and other African countries will no longer receive funds from the organization to support polio eradication activities in the country.

The Country Representative of WHO for Nigeria, Dr Walter Mulombo made this known in a statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary of the FCT Minister, Anthony Ogunleye on Thursday when he led a delegation of the WHO to update the minister on key public health issues.

He said, Nigeria and other countries on the continent had been removed from the priority list having been declared polio-free.

The statement read, “With the declaration of Africa as polio-free, the continent is being taken off the list of priority area that the global polio eradication will support and by January of 2022, there will not be substantial funding to support polio eradication activities.

“Nigeria, however, needs to continue those activities to maintain a polio-free status until such a time that global eradication of the disease is achieved.”

He, however, called for improved funding for disease control programmes and primary health care in Nigeria.

The WHO boss added that adequate funding at the state and area council levels would help strengthen and improve immunization services.

Mulombo also said the FCT had the highest containment, the highest testing rate per million as well as a high vaccination rate of 2.1% of the targeted population, describing it as one of the highest in Nigeria and even in the world.

He attributed the feat to the Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 and the robust outbreak response set up by the FCT minister.

FCT Minister, Muhammad Bello, assured stakeholders that emphasis would be placed on budgetary, support and counterpart funding in order to improve funding for WHO and other public health-related programmes.