Nigeria’s Kano State government, the Dangote Group, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday signed a multi-year memorandum of understanding “geared towards the eradication of polio in Kano State,” Actualite Afrique reports. According to the news service, a statement from the Gates Foundation said the public-private partnership aims to “improve routine immunization and primary health care in Kano State with a goal of reaching 80 percent coverage with basic vaccines by 2015” (11/27). Under the partnership, the organizations “would provide funding, equipment and technical support to the Kano State government to strengthen polio immunization,” Agence France-Presse writes (11/26).

“According to the Chairman of Dangote Foundation and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, it was necessary for the Foundation to take some drastic measures at stopping the spread of the disease in the state,” the Guardian Nigeria notes (Anwar, 11/26) “Since 2003, Kano has been especially hard hit by the transmission of the polio virus in Nigeria following the state government’s suspension of immunizations for 13 months,” AFP writes (11/27).