Girl Effect Nigeria, an NGO, says it has successfully mobilised more than 18 million Nigerians and facilitated vaccination of 26,000 adolescent girls against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) across five states.
The Country Director, Girl Effect Nigeria, Mrs Boladale Akin-Kolapo, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at the national close-out and dissemination meeting of the “OYA” campaign.
themomentng reports that OYA campaign is an adolescent health and advocacy initiative led by Girl Effect Nigeria.
It is aimed at protecting girls aged nine to 14 from cervical cancer and addressing adolescent malnutrition. The programme drives uptake of the HPV vaccine through community mobilisation and health education.
Akin-Kolapo said that the feat was achieved in partnership with Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Federal Government.
She said that the five-year project, implemented in Kaduna, Delta, Ekiti, Ondo, and Oyo states, was aimed at driving demand and shifting social norms.
“It also aims at increasing uptake of the life-saving HPV vaccine to protect girls from cervical cancer, ‘’ she said.
She said that the initiative leveraged an ecosystem approach, uniting schools, traditional institutions, health facilities, and digital platforms to build community trust.
”Vaccines do not save lives sitting in cold-chain facilities; they save lives when people trust them, parents understand them, and communities embrace them.
”Through our collective efforts, we reached more than 4.1 million people via digital platforms and approximately 18 million through radio programming.
”We also equipped over 315 teachers and healthcare workers, conducted more than 7,800 community engagement sessions, and successfully vaccinated 26,000 girls,” she said.
Speaking on the strategy, Akin-Kolapo said that the real challenge of public health laid in overcoming cultural and behavioural barriers, rather than just logistics.
She said that the campaignlil served as a universally recognised Nigerian call to action, urging communities to move forward and seize the opportunity to protect their children.
As the donor-funded initiative wound down, the country director warned against complacency, stating that the next critical phase was transitioning from a temporary project into routine immunisation systems.
She called on the federal, state, and local governments to institutionalise Social and Behaviour Change Communication (SBCC) within their budgets and healthcare systems.
”The challenge is no longer whether communities have heard about the HPV vaccine. The challenge is whether demand remains strong year after year, and whether misinformation is continuously addressed.
”The future success of HPV vaccination in Nigeria will not ultimately be determined by donor investments.
“It will be determined by the extent to which government at federal, state, and local levels continues to champion, resource, and institutionalise these efforts,” Akin-Kolapo said.
She reaffirmed Girl Effect’s continued commitment to partnering with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and state ministries to improve adolescent health.
According to her, the partnership is also aimed at reducing child marriage and advance sexual and reproductive health outcomes nationwide.
The country director urged the federal and state governments to transition from “project thinking’’ to “systems thinking” by institutionalising demand generation within routine healthcare structures to sustain the gains.
The Director of Disease Control and Immunisation at NPHCDA, Dr Garba Rufai, said that the country achieved unprecedented milestones in spite of fierce anti-vaccine social media campaigns.
Rufai cautioned against total reliance on donor-funded projects, challenging state governments to ensure seamless knowledge transfer and capacity building to maintain high immunisation figures.
”The business of immunisation is about persistence. Our measure of success will be what happens months after this close-out.
“We must ensure that nothing falls through the cracks as we transition,” Rufai said.
In a goodwill message, Dr Aruwa Oteri, a Senior Programme Officer of the country immunisation programme at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, commended Girl Effect’s focus on SBCC to break cultural barriers.
Oteri re-echoed the foundation’s commitment to prioritising the health of young women, noting that protecting them from adolescence empowered them to drive broader societal development.
Similarly, a representative of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Chisom Emeka, lauded the youth-centred and digital approaches deployed during the campaign.
She said that the WHO remained fully committed to supporting Nigeria in strengthening routine immunisation and ensuring that no adolescent girl was left behind.
Speaking on behalf of the implementing states, the Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, commended the project’s gender-responsive approach and evidence-based communication strategy.
Ajetunmobi said that the insights generated from the OYA campaign would guide future healthcare delivery policies and investments in adolescent health outcomes across the state.
