By Hassan Zaggi
The Federal Government has called on the 36 state governments to join and take their rightful place in the HIV/AIDS national response.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, made the call at the commemoration of the 2022 National Agency for the Control of AIDs (NACA) day in Abuja, Tuesday.
He, however, disclosed that the efforts of the federal government in the HIV response has recorded tremendous achievements in the past few years, noting that NACA recorded a lot of its remarkable achievements during the current President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
“Major milestone achieved by NACA under this administration include land mark HIV survey which shows fewer Nigerians were living with HIV and the most likely geographical location to find them.
“More than one million persons living with HIV were identified and placed on treatment within the last six years.
“Recently, President Buhari launched the private sector –led HIV Trust Fund in Nigeria.
“The Federal government is committed to improve the health of Nigerians and will continue to address challenges that constitute a key barriers to accessing HIV services in the country.
“Our achievement in the national HIV response, underscore the fact that together we can achieve much more.
“We must emphasis the importance of partnership and the harmonization of programmes for greater impact.
“It is in this regard that I call on state governments to take their rightful place in this national partnership as we develop a sustainability framework for the national response,” he said.
He, however, applauded the immense contribution of development partners including “the US President Emergency Programme for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund to fight AID, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the United Organisation systems, other multilateral and bilateral organisations.
“We could not have achieved this without your support. We still need you in achieving the last mile.”
Earlier, in a presentation titled: ‘Landmark Achievements In
HIV/AIDS Response 2015-2021,’ the Director General of NACA, Dr. Gambo Aliyu, said that in 2021, NACA got support totaling $300m.
On external resources mobilization, the NACA DG said, in 2015-2021 PEPFAR support the response efforts with $ 2.73 billion while in 2015 – 2021 Global Fund (GF) supported the response with $591 million.
He called on well-meaning Nigerians, philanthropic organization and all stakeholders to support the HIV response effort in order to end the scourge in the shortest possible time.
