CITAD trains COVID-19 vaccine managers on quality data collection
Story from Najibullahi ADAMU, Gombe
A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Centre for Information Technology And Development (CITAD), has trained COVID-19 vaccine managers drawn from the Primary Health Care Development Agencies in nine northern states namely; Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Gombe, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba on quality data collection.
Speaking Tuesday during the opening ceremony of the training held at the Gombe International Hotel, Gombe State, CITAD coordinator for public education on COVID-19, Hamza Ibrahim, explained that the training which was supported by Mac Arthur Foundation was meant to address discrepancies in COVID-19 data collection by teaching the participants how to compile a credible data that can be “accessed and trusted by the world”.
“It is very important to have this training targeting the data managers and it will also go a long way in benefiting the entire public by way of having data that is accurate, credible and does not have discrepancies.
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“When good data is generated, people can access and the data can be used by stakeholders at different levels to ensure that policies and decisions by the government are informed by that data”, he noted.
The coordinator also said that though the target of the training was on COVID-19, but would also be useful to primary health care agencies in collecting data on the current scourge of monkeypox and response to the plague.
Another facilitator at the workshop, Mustapha Alinkilo, said most data managers from the primary health agencies collect data manually and that they would be trained on the electronic collection during the event.
According to him, the best performing states in terms of COVID-19 vaccination are Nassarawa, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara adding that there is some level of immunity in the country against the pandemic due to the vaccines taken across the country.
