Nigeria sets up $149 million fund to fight HIV/AIDS

People walk past a bus during an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign on World AIDS Day at Kuchingoro Internally Displaced Persons Camp in Abuja, Nigeria December 1, 2018. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde

ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigeria on Tuesday launched a 62 billion naira ($149 million) fund to help fight HIV/AIDS, particularly targeting the prevention of mother-to-child transmissions, as foreign funding for such programs was under pressure due to the focus on COVID -19.

Some two million Nigerians are living with HIV/AIDS, while more than 22,000 cases of mother-to-child transmission are reported each year, according to official data.

The HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria is run by the country’s national AIDS agency and local businesses.

“Ending AIDS as a public health threat in Nigeria will require increased domestic funding,” President Muhammadu Buhari said at the fund launch which was also attended by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

Since 2005, Nigeria has spent $6.2 billion on HIV prevention and treatment, with 80 percent of the money coming from foreign donors, mostly from the United States, said Boss Mustapha, the federation’s secretary.

The National AIDS Control Agency has over the past three years put 900,000 more people on treatment to bring the total to 1.7 million, its chief said.

$1 = 415.33 naira

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