The Honourable Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire has disclosed that The Global Fund gave approval to repurpose the sum of US$6.2Million out of Nigeria’s on-going grants for HIV, TB and malaria, to support implementation of the nation’s initial Incident Action Plan (IAP) for COVID-19. He said the Fund was used to support rapid expansion of Nigeria’s diagnostics capacity for COVID-19 through decentralization of testing to all 36 States and FCT.
The Honourable Minister said that the rapid expansion of Nigeria’s diagnostics capacity for COVID-19 was achieved by using existing TB diagnostic instrument – the GeneXpert Machine and the procurement of Biosafety Cabinets for the GeneXpert Laboratories to be able to conduct COVID-19 tests, without exposing the laboratory scientists to risk of infection.
Dr. Ehanire disclosed these at the press briefing on the grant of $890 Million US Dollars over an implementation period of three years, 2021 to 2023 made by The Global Fund held Tuesday, 21st July, 2020.
The Honourable Minister said, in addition that The Global Fund also approved a grant of US$21.9 Million to support Nigeria’s COVID-19 response saying that the new grant is “the result of a proposal Nigeria CCM submitted to The Global Fund few weeks ago. The new grant, he said will be specifically used to procure test kits to support COVID-19 testing with the GeneXpert machine and other molecular laboratory equipment.” Dr. Ehanire added that “Overall, The Global Fund grants for COVID-19 will support testing for about 1 Million Nigerians over the next 12 months.”
While expressing appreciations on behalf of the President of the Federal Republic and the people of Nigeria, to The Global Fund “for the generous donations to Nigeria over the years, the Honourable Minister said that their support has had a significant impact on the lives of Nigerians, particularly with regard to prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria.
Dr. Ehanire extended the appreciation to the United Nations and bilateral partners of Nigeria for the consistent support to the Nation’s mission to achieve Universal Health Coverage for Nigerians and pledged that the grants will be put to judicious use with a high level of transparency and accountability maintained in accordance with President Buhari’s injunction of zero tolerance for corruption.
Signed:
Olujimi Oyetomi,
Director, Information, Media & Public Relations.
