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Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Federal Government, on Tuesday, confirmed receipt of a grant US$890 made by the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Nigeria, over an implementation period of three years, beginning from 2021 to 2023.
The grant, according to Federal Government, is the largest made to any country in this funding cycle, even though it’s sequel to a successful funding request by the Nigeria Country Coordination Mechanism (CCM).
It said the grant will complement the investment of Nigerian Government and of other development partners in HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria programmes, including the Resilient and Sustainable System for Health, over the period 2021-2023.
Minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, who addressed journalists in Abuja, on Tuesday, disclosed that since inception in 2002, The Global Fund has committed US$2,585,537,824, to its operations in Nigeria, which are splitted into four programme areas, namely; HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria, and Resilient Systems Strengthening for Health, (RSSH).
He added: “Of that amount, Nigeria has, as of date accessed US$2,436,371,946, representing 94 percent of the committed amount. And a breakdown of the funds disbursed to Nigeria so far indicated that HIV/AIDS got $874,801,962, TB got $338,655,681, Malaria got $1,168,613,356, RSSH got $44,178,974, and TB/HIV $10,421,972.”
Speaking on the key achievements of the Global Fund investments in Nigeria, the Minister said that, “for HIV/AIDS component, the Fund investment contributed significantly to placing of 1.04 million people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHIV) on treatment in Nigeria, in addition to providing life-saving ARVs for 194,900 PLHIV on ART.
“It also supported the 2018 Nigeria HIV/AIDS Indicator and Impact Survey (NAIIS), which provided precise data on the epidemic in Nigeria, confirming HIV prevalence of 1.3 percent.”
On TB, the Minister said that about 120,000 TB cases are identified and treated annually since, while TB services are provided in more than 12,000 health facilities. “We have also provided 398 GeneXpert machines in 36 states and FCT,” he said.
On Malaria, the Minister said that Global Fund has contributed to a significant decline in malaria prevalence from 42 percent to 23 percent from 2010 to 2018. Also, 11 million Long Lasting Insecticide Treated mosquito nets are distributed annually through mass campaigns. And at least, four million confirmed malaria cases treated annually at public health facilities in 13 states supported by the Global Fund.
Lastly, the Minister said the Fund has also built six Pharma grade medical warehouses, supported procurement of three X-ray mobile vans for screening of TB in Lagos, in addition to infrastructural upgrade of health facilities and laboratories, and capacity building for frontline health care workers under the RSSH.
The Minister announced that thr new grant is expected to herald improved access to malaria prevention, diagnostic and treatment services in 13 states, namely, Adamawa, Delta, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Taraba and Yobe States, as well as improved access to HIV/AIDS and TB services across all 36 states and the FCT.
He was optimistic that the intervention will also lead to improvement in health care system, particularly, provision of infrastructure for warehousing and distribution of health commodities, laboratory services, data management and capacity building for healthcare providers, including support to community systems.
With regards to Nigeria’s COVID-19 response effort, the Minister announced that Global Fund recently gave approval to repurpose the sum of US$6.2Million out of the on-going grants for HIV, TB and malaria, to support implementation of initial Incident Action Plan (IAP) for COVID-19.
In addition to that, the Minister said that Global Fund also approved a grant of US$21.9 million to support Nigeria’s COVID-19 response, explaining that the new grant will be specifically used to procure test kits to support COVID-19 testing with the GeneXpert machine and other molecular laboratory equipment.
