The Nigerian government has launched the National Domestic Resource Mobilisation and Sustainability Strategy for 2021-2025.
The Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr Gambo Gumel Aliyu says the strategy is aimed at ensuring the availability of sustainable resources for the implementation of programmes to meet the 95:95:95 HIV target by 2030.
He also said that the strategy would help to reduce Nigeria’s over-dependence on international funding.
Aliyu noted that international donations account for over 80 per cent of the funding.
“Between 2005 and 2018, a total of US$ 6.2 billion was spent on the HIV response in Nigeria, including the diagnosis and treatment of 1.08 million PLHIV (NACA 2020, Quarterly HIV Fact sheet Vol. 1). Over 81 per cent of these funds came from international donors, public funds accounted for 18 per cent and private funds provided an additional 1 per cent. The National Domestic Resource mobilization strategy has articulated key strategic and innovative approaches to address the current gap in domestic resourcing and financing of HIV prevention and treatment interventions in Nigeria.“ Dr Aliyu said.
The Director-General also said the target is to diagnose 95 per cent of all HIV positive persons, provide Antiretroviral Therapy (ARTs) for 95 per cent of those diagnosed, and achieve viral load suppression for 95 per cent of those treated by 2030.
“Sustaining HIV funding requires resource mobilisation and this resource mobilisation has always been external. It is time to mobilise resources domestically and to ensure that sustainability of HIV funding is guaranteed after epidemic control,” he said.
Dr Aliyu also said it is important for a country’s strategy to reflect the need to expand its resource base and increase domestic resources to diversify sources of funding.
He, therefore, called on state governments and stakeholders to assume greater ownership of the HIV response including financing and strong accountability structures.
The Chairman of the House Committee on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Abubakar Dahiru said that the National Assembly would improve the budget of NACA by 100%.
According to him, the budget is to give Nigeria more resources for HIV response.
He also urged state governors to contribute their own quota to the effort of ending HIV/AIDS in the country.
“Most of the people living with HIV are in various states and it is a duty of our governors to look after their people,“ Dahiru said.
The Country Director of UNAIDS, Erasmus Morah, said Nigeria should borrow the South African experience of 80 per cent funding
He also called on Nigeria to key into the UN shared responsibility and global solidarity module of not over burdening donors.
Dr Morah stated. that the initiative is the way to go and congratulated Nigeria on the move.
“At the United Nations, we said no one country can fight HIV alone and within the country, no one government or no one ministry can fight HIV, everybody needs to come on board,“ Morah added.
For the National Coordinator for the National Aids and STI Control Programme, Dr Akudo Ikpeazu, there is no time like now for the launch to take place.
She said that the document would play a vital role in strengthening and securing the National Treatment Programme.
Also speaking at the launch, the National Coordinator of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), Mr Abdullahi Dangirma, said Nigeria has invested accordingly.
He added that the Nigerian government has granted the request of NEPWHAN by providing them with Antiretroviral drugs.
The key focus of the document is to foster Resource sustainability and strengthen public financing of HIV at the SubNational/State levels.
PIAK
