NACA To Establish HIV/AIDS Trust Fund

The National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) has initiated the process to establish an HIV/AIDS Trust Fund, the Director-General, NACA, Dr Sani Aliyu has disclosed.

Dr, Aliyu, who was speaking on Monday at the 4th National Council of AIDS meeting with a theme: “Making our money go further: Improving Efficiency of HIV service Delivery,” said the establishment of the HIV/AIDS Trust Fund is in agreement with the resolution of the last council meeting.

The NACA director general said the Trust Fund would be private driven, where private organizations and individuals will contribute to the fund.

While commending the donor agencies and partners, he pointed out that enormous work has been done within the HIV response since the last council meeting.

He stated that individual, organizational and collective efforts have accounted for the successes recorded and the improvement that has been seen.

Specifically, he acknowledged the contributions of the United States Government, the Global Funds and the World Bank; adding that NACA has gone through a restructuring process to reposition the agency to increase her effectiveness in coordinating the HIV response in Nigeria.

According to him, there is a global evidence in support of the interventions adopted and applied in delivery of HIV services.

He said: “However, we need to make our money go further, by exploring ways to increase our efficiency in the delivery of these services. The theme of the 4th NCA is a call to improve the efficiency of our services across the continuum of HIV care from prevention, to treatment and care services.

The United States (US) Government Representative, Shirley Daddy said as donor funding tightens, Nigeria must find ways to be more efficient, “to make our money work harder, and to achieve more with less.”

She pointed out that this has been their theme at the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) over the past several years.

According to her: “From our perspective, there are several reasons why this may be a positive development. First, a more efficient programme will be more sustainable, second, it will be more cost-effective once the Government of Nigeria takes over the programme at all levels and third, we will be able to locate and peace 150,000 more people living with HIV on live-saving treatment in the coming year, which is, of course, our overarching goal.”

She promised that the United State Government will continue to work with stakeholders to find sustainable ways to support HIV testing and counselling.