Nigeria has received the sum of $890 million as a grant from the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), malaria, and support Health Systems Strengthening Programmes over an implementation period of three years, beginning from 2021 to 2023.
The grant, according to the federal government, is the single highest allocation to any country in this funding cycle and is sequel to a successful funding request made by the Nigeria Country Coordination Mechanism CCM submitted on 23rd March 2020.
Nigeria has contributed a cumulative sum of $28.62 million to the Global Fund since its inception in 2002. At the Fund’s last replenishment conference in Lyon, France, in October 2019, Nigeria increased its contribution by 20% with a pledge of $12 million for the period 2021-2023
Osagie Ehanire, minister of health, who disclosed in Abuja on Tuesday, informed that the implementation of the grant will support the access to malaria prevention, diagnostic and treatment services in 13 states.
The minister listed the states to include Adamawa, Delta, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Taraba, and Yobe States.
Ehanire said the grant will specially target the poor, the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, and those at higher risk of the target diseases, to promote equity in access to health care services.
The minister added that the grant will support access to HIV/AIDS and TB services across all 36 states and the FCT, particularly, provision of infrastructure for warehousing and distribution of health commodities, laboratory services, data management and capacity building for our healthcare providers, including support to community systems
The minister further informed that The Global Fund also approved a grant of $21.9 million to support Nigeria’s COVID-19 response. He said the new grant is the result of a proposal Nigeria CCM submitted to The Global Fund few weeks ago.
Ehanire said the Global Fund grants for COVID-19 will support testing for about 1 million Nigerians over the next 12 months.
“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. Overall”, the minister said.
He added that the Fund gave approval to repurpose the sum of $6.2Million out of our on-going grants for HIV, TB and malaria, to support implementation of our initial Incident Action Plan (IAP) for COVID-19.
“This Fund was used to support rapid expansion of Nigeria’s diagnostics capacity for COVID-19 through decentralization of testing to all 36 states and FCT, using existing TB diagnostic instrument – the GeneXpert Machine and the procurement of Biosafety Cabinets for the GeneXpert Laboratories to be able to conduct COVID-19 tests, without exposing the laboratory scientists to risk of infection mass campaign of test kits and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for frontline health workers”, he said.
Ehanire conveyed the appreciation of president Muhammadu Buhari to The Global Fund for their generous donations to Nigeria over the years.
The Global Fund raises and invests nearly $4 billion a year to support programs in countries and communities that are most in need. Nigeria ranks among the largest recipients of Global Fund investments in the world.
Since inception in 2002, The Global Fund has committed the sum of $2,585,537,824 to operations in Nigeria, which are split into four program areas: HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, Malaria and Resilient Systems Strengthening for Health, (RSSH).
Of that amount, Nigeria has, as of date accessed US$2,436,371,946, representing 94% of the committed amount. A breakdown of the funds disbursed to Nigeria so far is as follows: HIV/AIDS $874,801,962; Tuberculosis $338,655,681; Malaria $1,168,613,356; RSSH $44,178,974 and TB/HIV $10,421,972.
