MALARIA ELIMINATION: FCTA PARTNERS MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS FOR INCREASED AWARENESS ON SMC
By: Khadijat Kawunda and Doris Jonah
As part of efforts to eliminate malaria in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Administration has partnered with Media Organizations in the territory for increased awareness on Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) for the third circle campaign scheduled to commence from 8th- 11th August, 2025.
In collaboration with Malaria Consortium, FCT-Malaria Elimination Programme (MEP), a division of FCT Public Health Department (PHD), organized a Media parley which took place at the FCT Emergency Operations Center to engage media organizations for increased media participation in order to raise more awareness about SMC.
Speaking at the event, the Program Manager MEP, Hajiya Zainab Ibrahim, said engaging the media is fundamental to sustaining the achievements in preventive techniques already achieved in FCT, hence the meticulous selection of health correspondents in major media houses that have wide coverage and are suitable to reach the desired target audience.
According to the Programme Manager MEP, “it is pivotal to sending the right awareness through the right channel to bridge gaps of rejection and resistance of SMC in some parts of the territory caused but myths, inaccessibility to gated communities like barracks and private estates, poor awareness of SMC and lack of knowledge on the repercussions of not taking SMC to prevent malaria in children of vulnerable age from 3-59 months who are more susceptible to the disease” she said.
In the Media parley, discussions among key stakeholders’ representatives like; MEP, Malaria Consortium, FCT Primary Health Care Board, Health Education Unit of FCT Public Health Department noted that media engagement for SMC campaign in FCT has been inadequate due to the large audience targeted for the exercise thereby undermining the specific role of media in the campaign which is to raise awareness, educate the public, fight misinformation and promote engagement.
To engage the media, Acting Director, Disease Control and Surveillance FCT-PHCB Dr. Aderonke Akande said that “the role of the media in SMC campaign cannot be overemphasized and media should not only be engaged during implementation of SMC but in both the planning and implementation stages with the use of local resources to drive the message about the importance of SMC in preventing malaria to the right target audience” to achieve desired outcome.
Dr. Akande also stressed the need for media participation in reducing the “high morbidity burden of malaria in Nigeria prevalent among children under five years”. She urged the media to help disseminate the right message containing facts about SMC, which has been scientifically proven to prevent malaria and other complicated conditions like cerebral palsy, which is caused by severe malaria in children.
Furthermore, the State Programme Manager of Malaria Consortium Dr. Olutomi Sodipo in her remarks appreciated the “FCT Administration for the unwavering support in the fight against malaria in the territory since the introduction of SMC in 2022 which she says has been fully implemented across the six Area Councils covering the 62 wards and 274 health facilities with statistics of coverage moving from 66% at inception in 2022 to 99.6% in the 2025 second circle conducted in July 2025”.
Dr. Sodipo also said that Malaria Consortium aims at more than a 100% coverage in FCT and has been able to identify gaps of unawareness hence the Media Parley whose “objective is solely to improve access and coverage especially in urban settings like Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) to address some of the challenges like; inconsistent adherence to SMC national guidelines, implementer exploitation and community fatigue, pilferation of SMC commodities, resistance to campaigns amongst others”.
