Nigeria, Germany begins 5th phase of polio project By Henry Ibya, Abuja

The fifth phase of the polio eradication financing project between Nigeria and Germany first introduced in 2003 have been signed in Abuja today.

Professor Viola Onwuliri, Nigerian Foreign Affairs acting minister signed the 31.5 Million Euro Agreement on behalf of Nigeria while Klemence Moemkes, Charge D’Affairs of the German embassy to Nigeria signed for Germany, with the representative of KFW Frankfurt, Dr. Wolfgang Weth in attendance.

Speaking at the agreement signing ceremony, President Goodluck Jonathan represented by the acting Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof. Viola Onwuliri calls on donors agency and other international agencies, like the UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) to continue to assist the country not just in the  health sector but other areas of human endeavour, that need intervention to enable the young generation to be happy and also aspire for higher existence of living.

The Minister however, commended the German government for their commitment, consistency and honestly in the partnership that has lasted for over ten years.

She said, before this intervention, polio has caused a lot of harm to the younger generation, making some others disabled.

The minister while describing polio as a major development issued observed that if children are not properly taken care off on time, the disease will ravage the entire community and therefore commended the German government for bringing a lot of money to assist Nigeria in fight polio.

She assured the German government that the Federal government of Nigeria will continue to do its best to ensure that the country get to zero level before 2014. In  their  contributions the Charge D’affairrs of the German Embassy to Nigeria Klemence Moemkes and the representative of KFW, Dr. Wolfgang Weth commended the Nigerian government for living up to their partnership commitment which has made the German government to keep faith with the agreement which was first signed in 2003.

He revealed that with the 31.5 Million Euro donation in the fifth phase of the agreement, the German government has spent over 40 Million Euro of the phase and has commended about 55 Million Euro so far on the project.

The German representative also expressed satisfaction with the level of commitment demonstrated by the Nigerian government in the area of polio and therefore promise further collaboration in the agricultural sector as well as micro-finance. He also revealed that 5 Million Euros were released as part of their contribution to the security of those working for the eradication of polio in high prone security area.

Also speaking, the World Health Organization representative in Nigeria, Dr. Rui Gama Vaz and that of the UNICEF all thanked the Nigeria government for fulfilling the agreement and the reduction of polio cased by 50%. They also expressed appreciation to the government of German and the Ambassador for his personal contribution adding that with the commitment demonstrated by both Nigeria and development partners’ polio will very soon become a thing of the past.