New Incentives, an NGO, has spent over N34 million on conditional cash transfer to increase uptake of Routine Immunisation (RI) in six Local Governments Areas (LGAs) of Kaduna state.
The NGO’s Operations Coordinator, Malam Mubarak Bawa, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria on Sunday.
Bawa said that the amount was expended from July 2023 to date, under the organisation’s All Babies Are Equal project, towards reducing child mortality and morbidity in the state.
He said that the N34 million was specifically expended on community mobilisation, sensitisation, conditional cash transfer and tracking of defaulters.
According to him, the project has significantly increased demand and uptake of RI in the implementing LGAs, namely Kudan, Makarfi Ikara, Sabon Gari, Zaria and Soba.
He explained that N1000 was given to each mother or caregiver that brings a child for RI, adding that the project was being implemented in 264 health facilities across the six LGAs.
“So far, over N34m has been disbursed in Kaduna state, and more mothers are coming, so the figure keeps increasing every day,’’ he said.
Bawa said that since 2017, the organisation had been implementing the conditional cash transfer initiative in eight states in Northern Nigeria, to increase the uptake of vaccines among children under five years.
He identified the states as Kano, Kebbi, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Bauchi, Sokoto and Gombe, before Kaduna was included in 2023.
NAN recalls that the benefiting LGAs received a cash award of N150,000, under the All Babies Are Equal project.
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The LGAs were awarded based on five categories, namely enrolments, penta retention rate, activities executed, vaccine supply, and documentation.
Kudan LGA received two awards one on enrolment and another on vaccine supply, while Makarfi LGA received the Penta Retention Award.
Sabon Gari LGA received the award for best documentation, while Ikara went home with the most executed activities LGA award. (NAN)
