Nigeria Business Coalition Against AIDS (NiBUCAA) is set to launch a N62.1 billion HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria (HTFN) to prevent mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of the virus in Nigeria.
The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja, saying the fund would serve as a sustainable financing mechanism for the mobilization and deployment of domestic private sector resources to address the scourge.
According to the agency, Nigeria has the highest number of HIV new infections among children globally. It estimates that 1 out of every 7 children born with HIV in the world is born in Nigeria.
“In the absence of intervention, the rate of transmission of HIV from a mother living with HIV to her child during pregnancy, labour, delivery or breastfeeding ranges from 15 percent to 45 percent. With the right treatment, however, this risk reduces to less than 1 percent”, the agency stated.
NACA further explained that the Trust Fund will 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 U$108 Million per annum.
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Jekwu Ozoemene, Trust Fund’s managing director and chief executive officer, a seasoned banker, administrator, and finance expert opined that by deploying private sector competencies and capital market tools, the HTFN is key to helping Nigeria achieve the UNAIDS 95-95-95 strategy of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
Also, achieve 95 percent diagnosed among all people living with HIV (PLHIV), 95 percent on antiretroviral therapy (ART) among diagnosed, and 95 percent virally suppressed (VS) among treated.
“The Trust Fund’s investment 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,” Ozoemene said.
The fund is currently chaired by Herbert Wigwe, group managing director of Access Bank Plc. Other Board of Trustee members include; Mike Sangster, managing director of TotalEnergies Exploration and Production Nigeria; Aliko Dangote, chairman, Board of Trustees of 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.
Others are; Lars Richter, managing director/CEO Julius Berger Nigeria Plc; Gambo Aliyu, director-general, 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 sterling Board Advisory Committee.
