Federal government has declared December 8 every year as Nigeria’s National Blood Donor Day, which is coming on the heels of the government’s renewed commitment to ensure the availability of safe and adequate blood for Nigerians in need of it.
The acting director-general of the National Blood Service Commission, Dr Omale Joseph Amedu, while inaugurating the NBSC’s National Central Planning Committee in Abuja highlighted the need for the committee to strategize on ways to promote voluntary blood donation as a civic responsibility, ensure all blood establishments and hospitals work in synergy to provide sustainable quantities of safe blood and blood products for the country as well as adequately appreciating voluntary blood donors.
Amedu, in a statement yesterday, further emphasised that there could be no achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) without achievement of a nationally available and accessible safe, quality blood and blood products supply.
On the objective of the National Blood Day, Amodu said, December 8 is chosen as national day of blood donation in response to the need to domesticate the importance of blood as a serious human need and to raise the local content initiative where the Nigerian peculiarities are brought to the fore.
This National Blood Donor Day is modelled after the World Blood Donor Day celebrated globally on June 14.
The committee which was officially inaugurated today has the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), APIN Public Health Initiatives, Centre for Integrated Health Programmes, National Orientation Agency (NOA), National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service, the media and other implementing partners.
The committee has been charged to go all out to ensure a successful and impactful celebration of this maiden National Blood Donor Day in Nigeria.
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