983,497 children to benefit from seasonal malaria chemoprevention in FCT

 

No fewer than 983,497 children aged three months to just under five years are to benefit from the 2025 Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC).

This was disclosed on Tuesday by the State Project Manager for the Philanthropic Funding SMC Project in the FCT, Dr. Olutomi Sodipo, at the flag-off ceremony of the 2025 SMC Campaign in Abuja.

According to Sodipo, SMC was first introduced in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in 2022, under the coordination of the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) and the FCT Malaria Elimination Programme, with technical and financial support from the Malaria Consortium.

She noted that the programme has been implemented across all six Area Councils, covering 62 wards and 274 health facilities.

“The intervention follows a door-to-door delivery strategy, in which trained Community Drug Distributors administer monthly doses of the antimalarial combination-Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine and Amodiaquine (SPAQ) to children aged 3 to 59 months, during the peak malaria transmission season from June to October.

“Each year, Malaria Consortium has provided comprehensive support for pre-implementation and implementation activities, including; Macro and micro-planning, Personnel nomination and database development, Procurement of tools and materials, Training at national, state, and community levels, Last-mile distribution of commodities, 4-5 days of mass drug administration per cycle, among others,” Sodipo highlighted.

Speaking on the plans for 2025, the Project Manager said the organisation is targeting about a million children across the FCT. This, she said, will be achieved through collaborative efforts with faith-based organisations to access hard-to-reach communities.

“This year, we aim to reach 983,497 eligible children across the FCT. To further improve access and coverage, especially in urban settings like Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), we plan to adopt an urban SMC strategy by engaging faith-based organisations, particularly churches, to serve as distribution points in gated estates and hard-to-reach communities, in addition to the house-to-house strategy,” she said.

Earlier in her keynote address, the Mandate Secretary, Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe, said that despite being both preventable and curable, malaria remains one of the leading causes of illness and death worldwide.

“Alarmingly, Nigeria accounts for approximately 27% of global malaria cases, and about 30% of global malaria deaths occur in our country-most of these among children under the age of five.

“In the FCT alone, the statistics are sobering. In 2024, 4 in 10 people were affected by malaria, and 1 in 5 children carried the parasite in their blood. Each year, during the rainy season when transmission peaks, thousands of young lives are lost to this entirely preventable disease,” Fasawe lamented.

She, however, noted that the introduction of SMC has reduced the malaria cases recorded in FCT by 41%.

“SMC was first introduced in the FCT in 2022. I am pleased to share that since its introduction, we recorded a 41% reduction in the mean incidence of confirmed malaria cases between 2021 (before SMC) and 2022. This is a clear testament to the effectiveness of the intervention,” she affirmed.

Also speaking at the event, the West and Central Africa Programme Director of Malaria Consortium, Dr. Kolawole Maxwell, said that with the right approach, malaria can be eliminated in Africa.

Maxwell who was represented by the Senior Country Technical Coordinator for Malaria Consortium, Dr. Olusola Oresanya, added that since its establishment in 2003, the organization has remained steadfast in its mission to save lives and improve health in Africa and Asia through evidence-based programmes targeting malaria, other communicable diseases, and malnutrition-while promoting universal health coverage.

“Malaria remains one of the world’s deadliest yet preventable diseases, threatening the lives of over 3.2 billion people globally. The burden is heaviest in sub-Saharan Africa, with young children and pregnant women being the most vulnerable.

“Despite this, we know that with coordinated action and proven interventions, malaria can be significantly reduced and ultimately eliminated.

“By 2014, eight Sahelian countries were implementing SMC, reaching 2.5 million children. This number rose to 7 million by 2017. By 2022, the intervention had expanded to 17 countries, reaching an estimated 49 million children primarily in the Sahel region,” Maxwell noted.

He therefore called for greater government ownership and the development of long-term plans to sustain the intervention beyond donor funding.

“A supportive policy and operational environment is essential to ensure SMC reaches every eligible child. Malaria Consortium remains fully committed to supporting the Government of Nigeria and the FCT in implementing high-impact SMC activities and other malaria control efforts,” he said.