The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) plans to give malaria medicine to 983,497 children under five years old in 2025 to help prevent them from getting sick during the rainy season.
Olutomi Sodipo, who manages the Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC) project in the FCT, shared this news during a press meeting on Thursday in Abuja.
Sodipo said the program focuses on children aged 3 months to 59 months because they are most at risk due to their weaker immune systems.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the SMC program started in the FCT in 2022. It is coordinated by the National Malaria Elimination Programme and the FCT’s own malaria program.
The program is supported by the Malaria Consortium, which helps with both technical advice and funding. This support has helped the program grow in many communities across the FCT.
Sodipo explained that the medicine is given directly to families through a door-to-door approach. Community health workers give children a three-day treatment every month from June to October, when malaria is most common.
“In 2022, we treated 689,283 children. In 2023, it was 917,586, and in 2024, it increased to 939,729,” Sodipo said. She said the success was thanks to more than 10,000 trained workers.
She added that the first two rounds of the 2025 campaign already reached nearly all targeted children—98.4% and 99.6%. The third round is planned for August 8–11.
To reach more children, Sodipo said the program is also working with faith-based groups to help give out the medicine, along with continuing the door-to-door visits.
However, she mentioned some problems, such as people not always following the national guidelines, poorly marked houses, and missing data. She asked for ongoing support from the government to fix these issues.
Sodipo urged parents and caregivers to let health workers into their homes and to make sure their children take all the medicine to stay safe during malaria season.
Iheoma Nzekwe, the SMC Programme Officer for the FCT, said it’s important to also use other malaria prevention tools, like insecticide-treated mosquito nets, along with the medicine.
Hajiya Zainab Ibrahim, who leads the FCT’s malaria program, said they’ve seen improvements in reaching children, even those living in gated communities.
She said the media plays an important role in informing the public and helping people understand the program better.
She added that media support is needed to fight false information and to make sure all eligible children get the full treatment during the third round in August.!
