Identification of a consistently missed settlement in Kano State Nigeria

The Kano State AFENET team in January 2022 conducted retracing of some old, abandoned Cattle stock routes that were earlier being used by the pastoralists for grazing. With the assistance of a resident pastoralist who was designated as the Nomadic focal person/liaison, the activity was piloted in Kumbotso Local Government Area (LGA). During the exercise, the AFENET team ran into an isolated settlement in a hard-to-reach ward of the LGA. Upon engagement and discussion with the members of the community, it was discovered that the settlement was a”blind spot” that have never been visited for any PHC activity in the last 5 years.

The most proximal Health facility to the settlement was visited by the team and a review of their RI and Polio SIA microplan confirmed what the community members mentioned. These micoplans were immediately updated to capture this newly identified settlement. During the implementation of the subsequent Polio SIA, more than three hundred (300) eligible children were found and vaccinated.

The report submitted to Kano state on this discovery informed the State to write to the NPHCDA requesting for a support to conduct a walk through enumeration in some of the LGAs, which could have been the precursor to the IEV strategy implemented in the State by NPHCDA in February 2025.