The National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) says its current FCFA 900 million budget is insufficient to its activities and provide quality blood to Cameroonians nationwide. This was disclosed at the 7th ordinary session of the management committee of the institution at its headquarters in Bastos, Yaounde on Friday, February 6, 2025.
Chairing deliberations focused on the institution’s budget for the current year, Prof Tetanye Ekoe, chairperson of the Management Committee of the NBTS urged the government, their donors and partners to double their efforts so they could hit their target of 400,000 pints of blood annually.
To underline the necessity for an increase in the budget, he noted with regret how Cameroon is trailing other countries in blood transfusion service.
He said Benin, for instance, has a national blood transfusion service budget of FCFA 5 billion with a population of about 13 million people. In Senegal, he said the budget is FCFA 10 billion and in Cote d’Ivoire it is FCFA 15 billion.
Steady progress in achievements
While acknowledging the limitations of the budget, Professor Dora Ngum Shu Mbanya, NBTS General Manager said there has however been a steady progress in their achievements over the years.
“The national demand for blood has been estimated at 400,000 pints annually…in 2023 we collected 158,481 pints which represented just nearly 40% of our need,” she disclosed. This is however an increase from previous years as the institution collected 147,034 pints in 2022 and 140,050 pints in 2021.
With this progression, she urged everyone to put all hands on deck and improve the output.
“It just tells us that the population somewhere needs to do a little more. We too need to do a little more in sensitising the population, educating them because there are still many beliefs, many myths about blood donation which have to be broken.”
She went further to reiterate the importance of donating blood.
“When you haven’t been in a situation where you realise that only blood can save you, you will not understand what I’m saying. Blood cannot be fabricated in the laboratory. Science has not yet succeeded in that. When you need blood, either you get blood or you die. We want to have you on our records as regular blood donors,” she appealed to the public.
High cost of blood
Prof Dora Mbanya also decried the high cost of acquiring a pint of blood in the country. A pint of blood in Cameroon, she said, costs FCFA 18,000 while same costs FCFA 2,000 in another African country like Benin.
Blood donation follows strict rules. Although the standards may differ, at the National Blood Transfusion Service, however, every donor meets certain criteria.
The General Manager said a donor must be in good health and fully fit on the day of donation and must weigh at least 50 kg, have enough hemoglobin and must be aged between 18 and 60.
The National Blood Transfusion Service, NBTS is a public administrative establishment with legal status and financial autonomy. It is the sole coordinator of blood transfusion in Cameroon. It is placed under the technical supervision of the Ministry of Public Health and the financial supervision of the Ministry of Finance.
Created in December 2003, the institution went functional in 2019 with mission is to ensure the availability of quality blood products throughout the national territory.
First published in NewsWatch newspaper No 198 of Wednesday, February 12, 2025
