By Emmanuel Nduka
Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) Aliyu Gambo, has informed that the Nigerian Government has spent about $6.2bn in identifying and treating one million HIV patients in the country.
This was disclosed on Wednesday during the launch of the National Domestic Resource Mobilisation and Sustainability Strategy in Abuja.
“Between 2005 and 2018, about $6.2 billion was spent to identify close to one million people living with HIV in this country and place them on treatment.
“However, 80 per cent of this money came from international donors and development partners, only 18 per cent was contributed by the federal and state governments and one per cent came from the private sector,” he said.
The NACA boss added that it was essential for national and state stakeholders to assume greater ownership of the HIV response, including financing and strong accountability structures.
He said the strategy, which is designed to run from 2021 to 2025, is needed to monitor the use of the funds that are raised and to ensure that they are spent on activities that will continue to have a real impact on people living with HIV/AIDS.
According to NACA, the initiative would reduce the over-dependence on international funding and ensure the availability of sustainable resources for the implementation of programmes to meet the 95:95:95 HIV target by 2030.
