A community of people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria is calling for the establishment of a national trust fund to finance the national HIV/AIDS response.
The group made the call at a meeting of the National Council On Aids in Abuja to discuss sustainable financing options for HIV/AIDS in Nigeria.
According to them, the current financing mechanism with donor partners contributing over 70% of the national funding for HIV/AIDS is not sustainable.
According to the 2008 report of the United Nations Program On HIV/AIDS, 3.1% of people between the age of 15 and 49 were living with HIV/AIDS as at 2007.
That prevalence rate led to the formation of the National Council On Aids in 2007 to mobilize states resources against the ravaging effects of the HIV pandemic.
Ten years after, members of the National Agency for the Control of Aids say the current funding mechanism with government contributing less than 30% of total funding is no longer sustainable.
“The current HIV funding in Nigeria is not sustainable. It is driven primarily by international donors. We need to take our destinies in our hands,” the Director General said.
The National Coordinator of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS also appealed to the council to consider a national trust fund for HIV/AIDS intervention.
“One way forward for us to own our destiny and take charge is for us to have a national aids trust fund that can be able to take charge of domestic resources.
“We need not wait for statutory allocation every year, we need not wait for the donors to come and help us all the time,” he said.
Corruption
However, a member of the House of Reps Committee on AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria emphasized the need for transparency in the administration of funds and drugs for people living with HIV/AIDS.
“We have to make sure that we eradicate corruption from our daily lives. Sometimes people go the clinics, they cannot access these drugs but then you can pay money from outside and you get these drugs. That is corruption.
“So in as much as we are looking at system strengthening at this level, we must all make sure that we get to the end users and make sure that these drugs are given to them especially because the finance is not going to be there as it used to be.”
There are currently about 3.4 million people living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria with an annual death rate of 180,000.
Experts say the situation could get worse if a sustainable financing option is not devised in the face of dwindling donor funding.
