Britain pays £89m into Nigeria's anti-malaria programme over the last eight years

BRITAIN has invested £89m in Nigeria to help fund the fight against malaria and other mosquito-related diseases over the last eight years as part of a campaign to eradicate the scourge of what has become of the nation's biggest killers.

 

Paid out through the Department for International Development (DfID), the cash was spent between 2008 and 2016 to support Nigeria's anti-malaria programme. Charles Nelson, the executive director of the Malaria Consortium, revealed the details of the assistance at a seminar on Support to National Malaria Programme (Sunmap) in Abuja yesterday.

 

He added that Sunmap is being supported by the UK government under DfID and has projects across 10 states of the federation. Dr Nnenna Ezeigwe, the national coordinator of the National Malaria Elimination Programme, said the present low intake of scientific proven interventions by most Nigerians has been identified as the major factor militating against fast progress in the control of malaria.

 

She explained that the purpose of the programme was to reach the general population, specifically the poorest and most vulnerable with evidence-based interventions that would help reduce mosquito-related diseases and the malaria burden. Dr Ezeigwe bemoaned the fact that Nigerians are reluctant in adopting the strategies and intervention, which according to her, had greatly hampered the progress in malaria control..

“Low uptake of interventions is one of our problems that is militating fast progress in the fight against malaria. Currently, in some states, we have embarked on interpersonal communication strategies in the grassroots where we get communication experts to interact with people within the communities to let them understand the need to take the interventions that have been proven to be working.

“Individuals should embark on environmental management and they should observe general hygiene and always sleep under the net every night.  Individuals should keep their environment clean and clear all bodies of water in the general environment," Dr Ezeigwe added.

 

Dr Kolawole Maxwell, the country director of Malaria Consortium, disclosed that by the end of the project, through Sunmap alone, over 4m insecticidal nets were procured and distributed in public facilities and an estimated 2.2m nets were sold through the commercial sector. Also speaking at the event, Dr Babatunde Ipaye, the Ogun State health commissioner, highlighted the importance of deploying other strategies to curtail the malaria scourge in the country.