Abuja – Dr Omo Izedonmwen, National Coordinator, National Blood Transfusion Services (NBTS), Abuja Centre, has solicited for more funding from stakeholders to enable the centre meet its target.
Izedonmwen told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja that the organisation had not been adequately funded since the withdrawal of international donor.
“We have serious manpower issues; about 225 project staff who were the backbone of the organisation were disengaged and yet to be absorbed by the Federal Ministry of Health as a result of funding.
“Most of our equipment are obsolete and they need change; most of them do not have long life span,’’ he said.
Izedonmwen said that NBTS needed more financial and technical aids to expand its activities by engaging more workers in its strategic drive to transform blood transfusion in Nigeria.
He identified cultural barriers and public myths as some of the factors militating against blood donation in Nigeria, saying there was no alternative to blood.
The coordinator tasked the media to play primary role of sensitising the public on the importance of donating blood and what they stand to gain.
Izedonmwen said that blood is life and life is blood, adding that the supply of adequate and safe blood would promote healthy society.
“We have achieved a lot, but we are yet to be where we ought to be; on daily basis two or more persons come to donate blood; we are gradually getting there.
“One of the benefits of blood donating is that one is saving the life of another, somebody you don’t know,’’he said. (NAN)