Strengthening Nigeria’s Vaccine Supply Chain (SCM) project is funded through the basket fund contributed by the Government of Kano State, Aliko Dangote Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the redesign of Nigeria’s vaccines supply chain in partnership with McKinsey and Company, Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) and National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). The project kicked off in April 2013 and was implemented in Kano state to provide a sustainable long-term impact targeted at improving the immunization coverage rates in the state from 38% in 2012 to 80% in 2015.

The key challenges experienced on the project included a low level of vaccine stocks below acceptable levels of 90% including frequent stockouts of vaccines at the LGA and health facilities resulting in low coverage rates. Also, most of the cold stores were not functional and dilapidated and there was inconsistent funding for logistics which resulted in a low supply of vaccines across facilities. The project also faced challenges around poor data collection and usage and inefficiency in vaccine distribution systems which drove low coverage rates and threatened child health.

To address these challenges, Solina health developed and implemented a supply chain strengthening initiative where we analysed the system and revealed several areas of implementation to improve vaccine supply. These areas included improving the visibility of stock by developing a dashboard to track stock and the allocation of vaccine stock by employing data-driven advocacy to increase allocations, implementing quick fixes in the supply chain management which includes activation and revamping of state cold store, provision of the inventory management system at the LGA and training of key cold chain officers on vaccine Supply Chain Management and piloting the system redesign in eighteen (18) facilities across ten (10) LGAs in the state.

The redesign of vaccine logistics effectively transformed the routine immunization landscape in a number of ways. Primarily, the inadequate vaccine stock decreased from more than 50% at any one time to less than 2% while a sustainable process was put in place to service cold chain equipment. Also, there was an increase in the number of children vaccinated by 20-60% for RI antigens and a complete and transparent inventory of supplies at the facility.