The Federal Government on Tuesday said it aims to commence self-financing for HIV and tuberculosis programmes as it plans to end donor dependence.
This was disclosed by the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Pate, in Abuja while speaking at the official launch of the Multisectoral Accountability Framework for TB and the long-acting injectable HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.
The event organised by the National AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and STIs Control Programme of the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare brought together government officials, development partners, civil society groups and health stakeholders.
Pate said, “We want to exit dependency over time. By 2030, Nigeria should be able to put its own domestic resources toward the priority diseases that affect our people so that it is not consistently looking for this grant or that grant.”
He noted that global health financing was changing rapidly and countries would have to rely more on domestic resources to sustain programmes.
According to him, Nigeria was already taking steps to increase budgetary allocations and ensure stronger accountability in the use of funds.
He added, “We are in a world that is far different from where we were 10 or 15 years ago in this fight.
“Financing has become limited globally, and in such times it is innovations that will allow us to get ahead, stressing that integration of programmes would help the country use limited resources more efficiently.”
Pate also said the government was working with states and development partners to gradually replace donor funding with domestic contributions, adding that the goal was to ensure sustainability of TB, HIV and malaria programmes beyond external support.
