Nigeria: Malaria Consortium Names Kogi First Lady Itn Ambassador

What the report says

Kogi State has launched its 2026 insecticide-treated nets mass distribution campaign, with Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo flagging off the exercise in Lokoja over the weekend, according to Leadership as republished by AllAfrica. The programme is aimed at distributing 3,810,985 mosquito nets to 1,130,935 households across all 21 local government areas in the state.

The event also included the investiture of First Lady Hajia Sefinat Usman Ododo as Kogi State ITN Ambassador by Malaria Consortium. The organization said the recognition was intended to support malaria prevention efforts, while the governor’s office described the campaign as part of a broader push to reduce disease burden, especially among children under five and pregnant women. Malaria Consortium said it had worked with the state government and the National Malaria Elimination Programme to procure about 4 million WHO-recommended nets and train thousands of personnel for the rollout.

Governor Ododo, represented by the commissioner for health, said the campaign would begin on 11 November 2026 and run for eight days, with trained teams reaching households and communities statewide. He urged residents to collect and use the nets properly, and warned against diversion or misuse. The First Lady, represented at the ceremony, pledged to help mobilize women, families and community leaders to encourage consistent use of the nets.

The initiative matters because malaria remains a major public health issue in Kogi, and bed net distribution is a standard prevention strategy in endemic areas. More broadly, the report reflects ongoing state and partner efforts to improve malaria control through household-level protection and community mobilization.