By Ochiaka Ugwu
Continuous advocacy, public education, and sensitization can be used to correct the misperception of people on vaccine uptake and would drastically decrease zero-dose and under-immunized children in Nigeria, Director of Health and Bio-Medical Sciences at the Federal Ministry of Innovation, Science and Technology, Mr. Adebayo Adeyemi has said.
Adeyemi who made this known last week at a Three-Day- Co-Creation Workshop on Health policy and systems research to improve vaccine uptake focusing on Reaching zero-dose and under-immunized children in Nigeria through an integrated sectoral approach held in Abuja from January 21 – 23, 2026 expressed hope that Multisectoral approach which the workshop was advocating would go long way in improving vaccine uptake.
The Workshop hosted by Health Policy Research Group (HPRG), University of Nigeria, in collaboration with the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, raised concerns over persistent challenges limiting the uptake of childhood vaccines in Nigeria.
Continuing, Adeyemi highlighted the need for sustained community engagement and the use of incentives to improve immunization uptake and address the challenge of zero-dose and under-immunized children in Nigeria.
Researchers at the workshop dwelled on infant immunization, with speakers offering deep insights on how best to overcome vaccine hesitancy, strengthen health systems on reducing zero dose and under-immunized children.
Adeyemi posited that caregivers, health attendants should be educated, encouraged and incentivized continuously to support immunization efforts and achieve high vaccine uptake.
His words, “Zero dose and under-immunization challenges are not only peculiar to Nigeria, but a worldwide problem. Frontline nations still have challenges with zero dose.
“Zero dose is a major problem and continual thing we are going to be working on and we are not looking at absolute perfection. We can actually reduce the prevalent of zero dose. Multisectoral approach which this discussion is focusing on will add a lot from the efforts already being made and will have a lot of gains to every effort and intervention of government to achieve zero dose.
“Advocacy, education, continuous sensitization and bringing out the things the people need to do can be used to correct the misperception of people on vaccine hesitancy. It is not only as a result of money or beliefs, but access is a major thing. It can be physical, knowing where and how to get vaccinated.
“Value proposition can also hinder it. We need also service improvement by educating, giving incentives and encouraging caregivers and health attendants” he said.
However, the report unveiled by the group stated that upon National Programme on Immunization (NPI) recorded improvement over the past years in reaching zero-dose and under-immunized children, noticeable gaps persist.
The report revealed that challenges such as logistics constraints, vaccine hesitancy driven by misinformation, and weak coordination among immunization sub-systems have continued to undermine efforts to achieve universal immunization coverage, leading to the problem of zero-dose and under-immunised children across the nation.
The policy brief analyzed findings from a study conducted by HPRG, which gathered insights from key stakeholder groups, including caregivers of children under the age of five, health workers, and community leaders.
It reported that fieldwork was carried out in six states—Abia, Bauchi, Edo, Kano, Nasarawa and Oyo—representing Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, to examine immunization practices and the barriers affecting vaccine uptake nationwide.
High transportation costs, long distances to health facilities, and difficult terrain pose major obstacles to accessing immunization, findings from the study revealed.
The report also revealed that misinformation about vaccines and incentives contributes significantly to mistrust among caregivers and communities.
Statistics from the study showed serious weaknesses in immunization logistics and infrastructure, stating that 73.26 per cent of vaccine storage conditions were either inadequate or available but non-functional, while 36 per cent of transportation conditions were inadequate.
“32 per cent of health facilities experienced vaccine stock-outs before the next supply arrived, and 16.6 per cent reported shortages of manpower or the absence of storage systems” the report noted.
The findings showed that effective immunization requires strong coordination, noting that limited involvement of other sectors has negatively affected vaccination uptake which can be addressed through improved transportation services, especially to hard-to-reach areas, and increasing efforts to educate fathers and families to strengthen support for childhood vaccinations.
