Dr John Osuyali, Project Coordinator, Delta State Action Committee on AIDS (DELSACA), has said that N36 million would be disbursed to 12 NGOs in Delta as grant for fight against HIV.

Osuyali told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Asaba that more than 140 NGOs applied for the second trench of the grant to carry out HIV related activities in the state.

He said the screening of the NGOs commenced since October and that only 12 NGOs would be selected out of the lot."We have about N36 million for NGOs to carry out HIV related activities and only 12 NGOs will be eligible for the funding," the coordinator said.

He said that there was a technical group in charge of the screening and that it would employ the best mechanism to select the best NGOs.

"As I am speaking to you now many of the NGOs have been dropped, but about 52 have passed the first stage of the screening," he said.

Osuyali said that the agency had no problem dealing with NGOs in the execution of the HIV and AIDS related issues as they had to be properly screened to ensure that they would perform.

"Before any NGO qualifies to receive grant from us, it must have been screened, we must ensure that it has the machinery to carry out the functions we want.

"Out of the 30 NGOs enlisted in our services for the first trench of the programme, 29 of them performed well, while only one failed and has been dropped," he said.

On funding and resource mobilisation, Osuyali said that Delta Government had been funding the agency since 2008.

Osuyali said, "We had some funds for our activities last year from other sources outside World Bank.

"We were 100 per cent dependent on donor partners until 2008 when we had a sizable amount of money from the Delta Governmen.

NAN