Nonprofit Launches Software to Address Shortfall in Unpaid Blood Donation

Nkasiobi Oluike

Abuja, Nigeria, witnessed the launch of a software application, J Blood Match, to address the shortfall in unpaid blood donation in Nigeria by a nonprofit organization.

Jela Development Initiatives (JDI), the organization that launched the J Blood Match software explained that it hopes to seamlessly connect unpaid donors with those in need of blood to survive.

Expressing delight over the launch on Friday, Angela Ochu-Baiye, the founder of JDI, said the free service was initially created in November, 2019 as an artificial intelligence on Telegram, she added that it has gained popularity in the FCT and will help increase a nationwide adoption of the solution.

“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.

“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.”

Ochu-Baiye revealed that they also plan to expand the application of J Blood Match to other West African countries while reiterating their commitment to rewriting the voluntary blood donation narrative in Nigeria.

She added that the event was another opportunity for stakeholders to cast a searchlight on the need for voluntary, unpaid blood donation in Nigeria.

The founder of Emergent Labs, Emeka Mba, who developed the blood donation platform, emphasised its innovativeness and how it could help improve a voluntary blood donation culture of Nigerians.

Explaining how J Blood Match works, Mba said: “The platform is so easy to use. You only have to visit www.jbloodmatch.org and create a profile as a blood donor, by putting in your phone number, gender, location, age and blood group.

“Afterwards, when a blood donation request that matches your location and blood type is made, you receive a notification in your email, encouraging you to accept the request.

It would be recalled that WHO recently reported that Nigeria needs an average of 1.8million pints of blood annually, to keep the health of her people safe and sound.

However, the National Blood Service Commission (NBSC) said it collects only 500,000 pints of blood every year with a shortfall of about 73.3 per cent of the required amount.