Nigeria needs no less than $19 million to effectively tackle neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
The national coordinator for NTDs at the federal ministry of health and social welfare, Dr Fatai Oyediran made this known when Commissioners of Health and other key officials gathered at a high-level advocacy meeting in Abuja to strengthen efforts to eliminate NTDs in Nigeria.
Uniting to Combat NTDs and the federal ministry of health and social welfare organised a high-level advocacy meeting themed ‘Strengthening efforts to control and eliminate NTDs in Nigeria’ with the event taking place from 26-28 November, 2024.
Oyediran spoke on the finance gap in order for the authorities to tackle NTDs in Nigeria, noting that it is imperative for all partners to mobilise these resources and plan strategically to fully implement the master plan.
“I confirm that Nigeria needs about $19 million to effectively tackle NTDs. We developed our NTDs master plan in 2023 to run through 2027, and that is exactly what we need to effectively combat NTDs.
“Once this is done, I’m confident that NTDs in Nigeria will become a thing of the past,” he stated.
The Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amina Ahmed El-Imam, also spoke about the necessity for more focus on NTDs with the resources to back this up.
“There are many health challenges being tackled simultaneously. NTDs are so-called because they have not received appropriate attention and funding over the past years,” El-Imam said.
“Unless we refocus on them, we will not be able to achieve eradication as intended. Nigeria cannot afford to neglect NTDs and is assured that there are ongoing efforts to raise funds and channel locally available resources towards combating the diseases.”
Nigeria, according to a report currently faces a lack of dedicated, sustainable financing towards NTDs with the health issue not prioritised in Federal and State health budgets, posing challenges in the countries’ efforts to eliminate these diseases, despite this burden.
The report added that the country also faces some wider challenges related to coordination between Federal and State Ministries of Health, and weak logistics to support vital Mass Drug Administration (MDA) across the six geopolitical regions.
A recent study by Deloitte, commissioned by the END Fund, also showed that Nigeria could gain approximately $19 billion in increased productivity if NTD elimination was achieved by the year 2030, so the imperative to bring the right stakeholders together to ensure that this can be achieved was high.
Key attendees included 29 of 36 commissioners of health in country, directors in the federal ministry of health, permanent secretaries of the state ministries of health, youth NTD advocates, and development partners working in the NTD space, all coming together to discuss committing resources towards addressing the burden of NTDs to ultimately eliminate these preventable and treatable diseases.
The Guardian
