Jela’s Development Initiatives (JDI) Launches J Blood Match Software Application to Bridge Blood Donation Gap in Nigeria

According to the National Blood Transfusion Service, only about 10% of blood supply in Nigeria is from voluntary blood donors, while the remaining 90% is from family replacement and paid donors. This creates a significant challenge in maintaining an adequate and safe supply of blood for medical emergencies and transfusions.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that countries should have a minimum of 1% of their population donating blood voluntarily to meet their basic blood needs. However, in Nigeria, the figure currently stands at only 0.4%. Statistics from the WHO, have shown that Nigeria needs an average of 1.8 million pints of blood annually to keep the health of her people safe and sound.

But unfortunately, the National Blood Service Commission, NBSC, said it collects only 500,000 pints of blood every year with a shortfall of about 73.3 percent. The agency also revealed that only about 25,000 blood units sourced from voluntary unpaid blood donors were collected in 2019 and 2020.

Nigerians are being encouraged to consider becoming blood donors, in an effort to address the persistent shortage of blood supply in the country. This call was made by the Jela’s Development Initiative during a recent event organized to launch the J Blood Match, a software application designed to address the shortfall in unpaid blood donation in Nigeria on Thursday February 9, 2023 in Abuja Federal Capital Territory Nigeria.

Angela Ochu-Baiye, the Founder/CEO of JDI and Solution Architect of J Blood Match during her opening address stated that her journey as an advocate for blood donation was inspired by her personal experience. She had been admitted in a hospital scheduled to be operated on and the doctors had requested for blood for her. It was difficult for her to get the right blood donor that matches her blood type even from her family members. Her sister whose type was similar to hers were out of the country. She has ever since organized blood donation drives in partnership with the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS), developed an Artificial Intelligence platform on Telegram and Facebook that connected blood donors with blood recipients across Nigeria. Her efforts have over the years culminated into this recent strategy, which is the J Blood Match software application.

Angela urged Nigerians to embrace voluntary blood donation as a civic responsibility, stressing that regular blood donation is safe and does not pose any risk of contracting diseases. By registering using the App jbloodmatch.org and becoming blood donors, Nigerians can help save the lives of individuals in need of blood transfusions due to various medical conditions, including accidents, childbirth complications, and blood-related illnesses. She stated that. “With J Blood Match, JDI is innovatively building a strong blood donor network across the country and our hope is that every registered donor accepts the blood donation requests when they come in so they can save their blood sisters or blood brothers.

“I must thank everyone that attended the launch today, especially our supporters Air Peace Limited, The Mandela Washington Fellowship, Inspired by Jela, Emergent Labs, Jireh Multimedia, the Art of ED Studios, Creativitiyk Veedia, Big Mo, Giphics, Stunz Visuals and Transcorp Hilton Hotels. We strongly believe J Blood Match will get widespread adoption and fruitfully engage the interest of all Nigerians who do not want to see anyone ever bleed out due to the unavailability of blood.”

“We also plan to expand the application of J Blood Match to other West African countries while we reiterate our commitment to rewriting the voluntary blood donation narrative in Nigeria”

The launch, was well attending by well-meaning Nigerians, including Allen Onyema, Chairman, Air Peace, as well as other key actors in the health and social impact space. It was another opportunity for stakeholders to cast a searchlight on the need for voluntary, unpaid blood donation in Nigeria.

In conclusion, Nigerians are called upon to heed the JDI’s call to become voluntary blood donors, as it is a vital contribution to ensuring the health and wellbeing of those in need. Congratulations to JDI for this great achievement.