Private stakeholders in the healthcare sector are set to launch a N62.1 billion HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria (HTFN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
The HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria is expected to improve efforts to ensure coverage of high-IMPACT HIV interventions that will provide the requisite treatment for HIV positive mothers, while contributing to closing the funding gap for HIV in Nigeria that currently stands at about $108 million per annum, according to the statement seen by BusinessDay.
The fundraising project coordinated by the Nigeria Business Coalition Against AIDS (NiBUCAA ) is in line with the recommendations of the Nigeria National Agency for the Control of AIDS ( NACA ) on the prevention of the disease.
Jekwu Ozoemene, the trust fund’s managing director and executive officer, in a statement, said the initiative is aimed at creating a sustainable financial mechanism for the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV in Nigeria.
The finance expert said the HTFN is key to helping Nigeria achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 strategy of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030; achieving 95 percent diagnosed among all people living with HIV (PLHIV). It also aims to support the UNAIDS target of 95 percent on antiretroviral therapy (ART) among diagnosed, and 95 percent virally suppressed (VS) among treated.
The fund will improve maternal health and reduce child mortality (especially in the rural and peri-urban communities) in Nigeria through programs focused on awareness creation on PMTCT, HIV prevention education for women who are in their reproductive age, and the provision of testing services and antiretrovirals for HIV positive pregnant and infected babies, the statement read.
The Trust Fund is currently Chaired by Dr. Herbert Wigwe, the Group Managing Director of Access Bank Plc.
Other Board of Trustee members includes Mike Sangster, the Managing Director of Total Energies Exploration and Production Nigeria; Aliko Dangote chairman, Board of Trustees, Dangote Foundation and president of the Dangote Group; Osagie Okunbor, managing director, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria- SPDC, and the Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria; and Lars Richter, managing director, and CEO Julius Berger Nigeria Plc.
Also on the board are Gambo Aliyu, director-general of, National Agency for the Control of AIDS NACA; and Sani Aliyu, immediate past director-general of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS NACA.
The Board of Trustees is supported by a Board Advisory Committee.
