Nigeria 

The Safe Blood for Africa Foundation™ (SBFA) is dedicated to the development and strengthening of sustainable Blood Services in Africa in accordance with WHO guidelines.  Our operating framework is based on the Blood Safety Value Chain (BSVC) and designed to emphasise the importance of all the components that make up a centrally coordinated sustainable National Blood Service.  The SBFA has been active in Nigeria for over 12 years with an established office and functional training centre providing full-time jobs for Nigerian staff.  The Nigeria office has been continually supported through visiting SBFA staff members and internationally recognised consultants.  During that time, SBFA has established working relations with the Nigerian Society for Haematology and Blood Transfusion and the African Society for Blood Transfusion (AfSBT) to promote improved blood transfusion practice in the country based on fit-for-purpose approaches.

Our Mission

The SBFA continues to assist Nigeria in developing the Nigerian National Blood Transfusion Service (NNBTS) focussing on improving all aspects of the operation including centralisation of administration, donor management, testing, blood components production, distribution of blood components, training and quality systems by providing Technical Assistance (TA) related to the following five key technical areas:

• Situational assessment and strategic planning
• Blood collection and donor mobilisation
• Blood testing
• Quality management systems including (M & E)
• Training

From December 2004, SBFA acted as sole implementers and established the Abuja Demonstration Project (ADP) to serve as a model Blood Testing Laboratory for the Nigerian National Blood Transfusion Service (NNBTS).  This was achieved through funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).  In 2005, SBFA was awarded PEPFAR funds through CDC to provide TA to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) to develop blood centres for the NNBTS in Kaduna and Imo States and in 2010, SBFA received a second cycle of funding from PEPFAR (2010–2015) to enable continued provision of TA for improving the availability of safe blood services..

Safe Blood for Africa Foundation^TM’s achievements in Nigeria include:

• Establishing and running the first stand-alone centralized blood service centre in Abuja for two years
• Assisting with development of the National Blood Policy
• Assisting with development of the National Blood Safety Operational Guidelines
• Introducing and establishing a Nigerian chapter of Club 25
• Implementing blood safety training for the NNBTS and hospital-based Blood Safety personnel nationwide
• Providing quality systems training to NNBTS staff at all levels
• Initiating quality audits and associated M&E activities in zonal blood centres
• Implementing a community-based blood donor mobilization programme and other donor mobilization and awareness creation initiatives
• Supporting improvement of NNBTS strategies to ensure increased media activity and wider coverage
• Assisting with the establishment of a blood components processing facility for the NNBTS
• Providing blood transfusion awareness training to partner NGO’s
• Establishing a system of mentoring NNBTS staff in the workplace
• Conducting Training of Trainers courses to build sustainable capacity in Nigeria
• Improving public awareness about blood safety through sustained advocacy campaigns improving sensitization and mobilization campaigns in the community
• Collaboration with the Nigerian Medical Laboratory Science Council to provide training for teachers of medical laboratory science in testing donated blood