02/07/25
Writer : SHINA DANIEL
Major Stakeholders in Nigeria’s health sector have called for More collaboration through increased local funding to close the gap In Malaria, HIV And Tuberculosis Intervention with the dwindling foreign donations in recent times
They made this call On Tuesday first of July during the Opening of the 2025 retreat of the
Nigeria Country Coordinating Mechanism 2025 and 70th General Assembly in Lagos State with the theme “Partnering to improve health systems outcomes in an evolving global health financing landscape .
The retreat has in attendance members of the National Assembly, The civil Society Groups,other Partners who are expected to address the challenges,assess strengths and weaknesses of the current Grant implementation framework and propose actionable solutions for Improved performance in the next three days .
The Global Fund supports Nigeria ‘s fight Against HIV ,Tuberculosis And Malaria by providing essential medicines, diagnostics tools, strengthening health systems through training and lots More
The recent withdrawal of United State and reduced allocation to Nigeria by the European government,a huge gap capable of eroding previous gains from the interventions .
In his Keynote Address, The Chairman House Committee on HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis And Malaria Control Honourable Amobi Godwin Ogah
commended the CCM Nigeria for inviting Members of the Nigerian Parliament to this annual CCM Nigeria retreat which marks a watershed in our advocacy for mutual collaboration and partnership that will ensure universal health care for our country, Nigeria
He noted that forum was a right step to the needed cooperation to drive increaseddomesticfundingforHealthcare for Nigerians
” This new collaborative effort between the legislature and CCM is borne as a result of the patriotic call by myself and the members of ATM Committee that Nigerians, who we represent must know how Global Fund resources are managed and disbursed to recipients, and that these recipients must equally be made to account for every kobo received in order to ensure better outcomes in the response against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Nigeria. Since these funds are meant for Nigeria, we in the Parliament has resolved that these funds must indeed be managed and disbursed by the constituted body responsible for its administration, that is the CCM Nigeria for effective and proper oversight of the fund and the recipients by the parliament”
“While I also commend CCM Nigeria for their commitment thus far in coordinating Global Fund resources, we in the Parliament believe that much needs to be done in the area of transparency and accountability. As the representatives of our people, the parliament has the mandate to oversight every money, be it foreign loans, grants, aids, donations or locally appropriated funds for the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in the country. Therefore, I call on CCM Nigeria to provide the platform for effective oversight by Parliament on the recipients of Global Fund resources in Nigeria. I recall about one and half year ago when the committee decided to investigate what the recipients of Global Fund resources have done with the funds received. We were shocked to discover that some of these organizations do not have verifiable addresses while the entire process was met with a brick wall as they all kept passing the bulk.
I believe it is in the interest of CCM to open up their processes to the parliament as many Nigerians view their operations and activities as that of a secret coven.
Before now, I and the Committee of ATM have called at various forums for the mobilization of increased domestic funding for the response against public health threats in the country and for building capacity of our health care delivery and for resilient and sustainable systems for health and less dependence on foreign grants, like a lone voice in the wilderness. And today little did we know that the US Government will suspend their support to African health systems Which informed our advocacy for the Nigerian government to take the initiative in addressing the funding gaps that will arise from the actions of the US government.
We are happy to note that this advocacy resulted in the Nigerian government providing guaranteed funding of about 200 million US dollars for the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
I must say that the House committee on ATM is highly disappointed at the program managers of Malaria and HIV in the country as little or nothing is been done to address glaring inadequacies in the sector. Malaria continues to ravage and impoverish the teeming populace of our country and have reached epidemic proportions, yet we in the committee of ATM are not aware of what government is doing to redress this setback. We have called for the treatment of malaria to be made free at all primary health care centers across the country, while we moved a motion last year on the need to conduct a baseline survey of fake anti-malaria medicines in the six 6 geo-political zones of the country. That motion suffered serious setback because key malaria stakeholders did not deem it fit to collaborate with parliament in riding our country of fake and sub-standard malaria medicine.
However, the committee is proud of the robust partnership with TB stakeholders, who have shown a willingness and desire to engage with the parliament. Significant progress has been recorded in the area of Tuberculosis and I am proud of the great collaboration that was engendered by the various Tuberculosis stakeholders with the Parliament.
Honorable Amobi Urged stakeholders to ensure that they do the best for Nigeria and Nigerians.
“We believe that what is what doing, is worth doing well, and we are going to hold every organ or agency under our purview accountable. It is therefore, incumbent on us as leaders to ensure utmost accountability and transparency in the disbursement of these funds to programs and organizations that will impact the lives of our impoverished constituents. We must also ensure strict adherence to establish guidelines and protocols for disbursement and also ensure that recipients of global fund resources are made to account for every kobo received.
I and my colleagues are curious to understand the workings of the CCM Nigeria in the area of management, disbursement and oversight of Global Fund resources for the country, because we believe these funds belong to Nigeria and CCM Nigeria is the management agency for the fund. This scenario is what this retreat is expected to unravel. I also want to re-echo the view “
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