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Julius Berger Nigeria Plc recently joined other private sector stakeholders to launch the N62.1 billion(US$150 Million) HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria (HTFN).
The HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria (HTFN) is a private sector-led initiative of both the public and the private sectors. It is aimed at ensuring sustainable mobilisation of funds towards the eradication of AIDS in Nigeria, starting with the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Julius Berger Nigeria Plc is donating a sum of N56 million as part of the funds needed to set the trust in motion. The company is one of the Trust Fund’s five Funding Trustee member organisations and was represented at the event by its Managing Director, Dr. Lars Richter.
The Fund was officially launched by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Villa Banquet Hall and had in attendance ministers, senior government functionaries, captains of industry, important members of the diplomatic corps, representatives of the United Nations (UN), global leaders in the fight against HIV&AIDS, and members of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDs in Nigeria.
It was described by global health leaders, as an important milestone in driving the next stage of the fight against HIV/AIDS in Nigeria. Themed “No child in Nigeria should be born with HIV; no child in Nigeria should be an orphan because of HIV; no child in Nigeria should die due to lack of access to treatment”, Ms. Winnie Byanyima, who is the Executive Director UNAIDS, in her keynote address, described the initiative as laudable.
