Sokoto — The Sokoto State Action Committee on HIV/AIDS (SOSACA) has disbur-sed N31 million to nine ministries for various intervention programmes on the prevention of HIV/AIDS in the state.

Speaking during the presentation of cheques to the affected ministries over the weekend in Sokoto, the chairman of the SOSACA, who is also the commissioner for Health in the state, Dr. Jabi Kilgori called on the focal officers of the affected ministries to make judicious utilization of the fund.

Dr. Kilgori explained that ma-laria kills more than AIDS, but noted that the manner of trans-mission of AIDS however ma-kes it more difficult, adding that the funding provided for the various ministries was based on their action plan submitted.

The chairman of the state ac-tion committee on AIDS urged the focal offices of the ministries to en-sure maximum utilization of the fund, stressing that they would be adequately monitored to see what they are doing and that their perfor-mance would determine the release of further funds for the projects.

In his words: "you must per-form and ensure that you are ma-king progress, in fact, the time for just taking money has gone, the governor is waiting to see re-sults and good result will make the state proud". He stated fur-ther that the intervention activities expected to be em-barked upon are sensitization programmes on HIV/AIDS and proper education about the mode of transmission.

Others are the stigma associa-ted with the affected person, ta-king the affected person to hos-pital, proper education of the rural communities on the need to go for testing and many more.

Dr. Kilgori challenged the focal officers to ensure tangible results and not fake results, noting that failure would not be compromi-sed by the administration.

In his remarks, the programme manager of SOSACA, Alhaji Na-siru Yahaya Isa said nine line mi-nistries according to the manda-te of the World Bank would be-nefit from the N31m for execu-tion of the programme in the state.

He added that they were given N15.5m being the 50 percent to the focal offices of the ministries and that the balance would be provided at a later date. Ministry of Health was presented a che-ques of N5.5m, education N1.5m, women affairs N2m, justice N1m.

Other beneficiaries according to the programme manager include, science and technical education ministry, information, local government, youth and agriculture ministries.