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Nigeria: FG Allocates N1.115 Billion to Fight HIV/Aids
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Leadership (Abuja)
4 July 2008
Posted to the web 4 July 2008
Justus Nduwugwe
Abuja
The Federal Government has allocated the sum of N1.115 billion to fight the scourge of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria during the current year. Out of this figure, the sum of N1.1billion is allocated to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) while N15 million is to be spent by the National Agency for Control of AIDS (NACA).
Making this known yesterday in Abuja at the meeting World-Bank assisted HIV/AIDS programme development project, the Director General of the National Agency for Control of HIV/AIDS,
This is coming against the startling revelation by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman that UNAIDS, the umbrella organisation coordinating the global battleagainst HIV/AIDS says over 50 million people have been infected with the virus in the last 20 years.
According to Shamsuddeen, who was represented by the acting Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Alhaji Jibrin Zarewa, "Out of this figure about 22 million have died of AIDS related illness and 4.3million of them were children".
"Today, over 40 million adults worldwide are HIV positive. Africa remains the worst affected continent in the world with its death toll from the virus confirmed at 2 million annually", he added.
The Minister further said that since the first reported case in Nigeria in 1986, the phenomenon has reached a pandemic proportion as the prevalence rate stands at 0.5 per cent annually. "An estimated 4 million Nigerians are currently living with the HIV/AIDS virus. The epidemic is now beyond the commonly classified "high-risk groups" and is now evidently generalised", Shamsuddeen said.
The Minister also observed that HIV/AIDS in Nigeria infects all age groups particularly the yound adults between 20 - 29 years, adding that one major social effect of this is the increasing number of orhans generated by the epidemic. He also stated that the number of orphans as a result of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria is estimated at N1.5 million.
According to the Minister, the objective of the meeting is to discuss and agree on the need to create a budget line for HIV/AIDS activities in Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (FMDAs).
"The funding of these activities is now largely dependent on the World Bank credit support to Nigeria which will close in June, 2009. In order to scale up the public-sector response, there is need to evolve an internal funding mechanism that would sustain the temp of activities and consolidate the gains recorded from the World Bank support", he added.
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Earlier, Professor Babatunde Osotimehin, the Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDs, recalled that the sum of N1.53billion was appropriated for the fight of the disease by the Federal Government.
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