By Moses Emorinken, Abuja

The Federal Government has commended the private sector led HIV Trust Fund target, which will galvanize funds to the tune of N50bn, to place persons living with HIV on treatment.

It further recommended a 20 percent financial commitment for states, for the treatment of people living with HIV, and to provide HIV test kits.

It has therefore launched the National Domestic Resource Mobilisation and Sustainability Strategy to reduce the country’s over-dependence on international donors to fund HIV/AIDS interventions and responses.

Speaking during the official launch of the Strategy in Abuja, the Director General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Dr Gambo Aliyu, said: “The National Domestic Resource Mobilization Strategy has articulated key strategic and innovative approaches to address the current gap in domestic resourcing and financing of HIV prevention and treatment interventions in Nigeria.

“A key focus to foster resource sustainability and strengthen public financing of HIV at the sub-national/state level is a recommendation for states to take charge of at least 20 percent of treatment of people living with HIV in their states and to provide HIV test kits. I also wish to commend the target of raising a start-up fund of N50 billion using the private sector led HIV Trust Fund.

Read Also; We must eliminate HIV/AIDS by 2030 – Buhari

“Between the year 2005 to 2018, about $6.2 billion was extended to identify close to one million people living with HIV and AIDS in this country, and place them on treatment. However, 80 percent of this money came from international donors and development partners.

“Only 18 percent of the money was contributed by the federal and state government, and one percent of it came from the private sector. Because of this, it becomes imperative, with the leadership of his Excellency President Muhammadu Buhari, and the pledge he has made for which he has fulfilled to place 100,000 people living with HIV and AIDS on treatment with the government of Nigeria money; and also on an incremental basis to increase this number by 50,000 every year. I am glad to say we did this last year and we are on track to repeating it this year.

“The goal is to ensure that sustainable resources are available for the implementation of our programs to meet the United Nations goal of identifying and placing on treatment and actually controlling the virus of 95-95-95.

“What that means is that at the end of it, if that is achieved, over 80 percent of people living with HIV and AIDS in the country will have the HIV restricted in them in such a way that it doesn’t leave them to affect other people, and also, it lacks that opportunity to bring down their body defense mechanism which could claim their lives.”

In his remarks, the Chairman of the House Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (ATM), Hon. Abubakar Sarki Dajiru, said: “The 2022 budget, by the grace of God, the National Assembly, based on the Committee on ATM, and also our Senate partners, felt that the budget of NACA should be improved by 100 percent.

“Almost 90 percent of the governors are not doing what they are supposed to do. So, we are having that alliance with the Director-General of NACA, of which sooner or later, from the National Assembly, we are going to come up with a motion whereby all the governors and all the counterparts (funds) that we felt they should pay to NACA, should be directly from the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.”

The Country Director of UNAIDS, Dr Erasmus Mora, added: “This particular agenda we are calling domestic resource mobilisation and sustainability agenda, is about how do we pay to keep Nigerians from getting infected from HIV, and more importantly, how do we pay to ensure that those who are in treatment currently can comfortably remain on treatment, and that the remaining 20 to 30 percent who are not on treatment are brought on treatment?”