The Director General (DG), National Blood Service Commission, Dr Omale Joseph, has said Nigerian Commercial drivers will soon have their blood group on identity cards.
He disclosed this Thursday at the National Assembly while briefing journalists on the mandate of the commission and a bill passed to strengthen the activities of the agency.
He said the measure was part of a plan to identify blood groups in order to reduce incidences of loss of lives from accidents as a result of delays to screen accident victims’ blood groups.
Joseph informed that the blood group identification would be extended in future in order to minimise the hassles of attending to emergency blood transfusions to Nigerians.
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“We already have a signed MoU between the National Blood Services Commission and the Federal Road Safety Commission that, the ID Card of drivers is going to have their blood group.
That’s the first step; that is already ongoing; there are other collaborations we are having with other agencies to have a robust blood service in the country,” he said.
Earlier, the sponsor of the bill, Abbas Tajuddeen (APC, Kaduna), while giving a highlight said, the commission would help close the existing gap of 1.5 million pints of blood needed in the country annually as well as other challenges being faced.
He said a survey conducted in 2015 revealed that only 500,000 pints of blood were collected from private and public sources in 2014.
“This is grossly inadequate for a country of 180 million. At our current level of healthcare delivery, it is estimated that, about 1.5 Million units of blood per annum is required,” he said.
