Enugu, Nigeria: The Japanese government has donated a cold chain storage facility for immunisation drugs to Enugu State government under a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) partnership programme. At the formal launch of the cold chain, UNICEF representative Felix Nnakwe, disclosed that Enugu is the first southeast state to be a beneficiary of the support. He urged Enugu’s government to make good use of the facility, while ensuring safe delivery of the immunisation drugs from the cold chain to distribution points and then to children.
The government of Japan has been one of the major donors, through UNICEF, of Nigeria’s polio eradication and immunisation programme since 2000. Last December (2010), Japan donated N1.5-billion for the procurement of polio vaccines, cold chain equipment, Long-Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets and child survival supplies designated for Child Health Weeks.