UK donates £1bn to global fund to fight malaria in Nigeria

By Chinenye Offor

United Kingdom has contributed about one billion pounds to the global fund against malaria and other diseases in Nigeria for the period of 2024 to 2026.

Dr Ebere Anyachukwu, the Health Adviser, British High Commission (BHC) said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja, in commemoration of the World Malaria Day.

Anyachukwu said that government of the UK contributed the money to a global fund that mobilised resources for countries to fight diseases.

According to him, the one billion pounds is added to the funds coming from other donors, to be managed by global fund to tackle malaria and other diseases in Nigeria.

He added that it was from those funding that payment for things like insecticide, treated bed nets, diagnostics testing for malaria and also for chemoprevention were made.

“There are some states in Nigeria where malaria is seasonal. Those are states where chemoprevention is used to prevent children from coming down with malaria.

“In those states, malaria spreads in a few months within a year, and during that period, there is a high level of malaria transmission in children, resulting in lots of deaths,” he said.

The health adviser said that children in such states were usually given malaria drugs, whether or not they have malaria.

“These are part of measures by global fund that have significantly reduced the level of sicknesses and deaths in children,” he said.

He said that the UK was a big contributor to the global fund, which is currently supporting about 13 states in Nigeria.

He listed the states to include Adamawa, Delta, Gombe,  Jigawa,   Kaduna,  Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Ogun , Osun, Yobe and Taraba.

“With the global funding support, there has been a significant reduction of malaria related deaths in children in Nigeria.

“In 2008, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that Nigeria had about 221, 000 malaria related deaths. But by 2022, the figure was about 189,000 deaths.

“There is a significant reduction due to the intervention of global fund, even when there was an increase in the nation’s population.

“Lots of lives have been saved  over the years because people now have access to health care facilities funded by these interventions,” he said.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

Edited by Benson Iziama/Halima Sheji