Niger is an arid country in western Africa, with over 80 percent of its land is covered by the Sahara Desert. It borders Algeria and Libya to the north, Chad to the east, Nigeria and Benin to the south, and Burkina Faso and Mali to the west. Although Niger has the fifth largest uranium reserves in the world, it is still a developing country persistently ranking as one of the lowest on the United Nation's Human Development Index (HDI). Its gross domestic product per capita was only $720.88 in 2010. The country is within the heart of the meningitis belt and reports severe meningitis epidemics periodically.

Amongst countries in the 'Meningitis Belt,' Niger is one of the most heavily affected countries and is a core vaccination target country based on prevailing disease incidence rates and disease burden. Therefore, Niger has been considered to be a candidate for the initial introduction campaign of the group A meningococcal vaccine in the Sub-Saharan region. Despite promising initiative to introduce meningitis vaccines to Niger by several organizations worldwide, mass immunization campaigns in Niger have not yet fully materialized. The government is willing to cooperate with many campaigns and organizations, but the country's infrastructure is not able to keep up with its political agenda. Updated comprehensive multi-year vaccination plans and district micro-planning do exist, but technical ability to successfully implement a national immunization campaign and surveillance system limits the capacity of vaccination campaigns.

It is financially unviable fo Niger to secure a supply of meningitis vaccines, especially the newly developed conjugate vaccine. In order to confer herd immunity in target areas in Niger 8 million conjugate vaccines are needed, but the government has only procured 3 million vaccines so far. Foreign aid and production of vaccine is essential at this point.

Reference: International Monetary Fund, Oct. 2010.