Standup9ja: Nigeria must stop "dependency culture"
— NACA DG
The director-general of National Agency for Control of AIDS
(NACA), Sani Aliyu, says Nigeria needs to "stop this dependency
culture", citing overwhelming reliance on foreign donor funds to run its
health sector programme and response.
Speaking at the Health Watch Forum organised by Nigeria
Health Watch in Abuja, Aliyu said much of Nigeria's funding contribution to its
HIV response was spent on salaries, not commodities required.
"70 percent of HIV response is driven by donors; 26% by
federal and state governments but it is actually salaries and not
commodities," he said.
He cited one round of funding in which the US government and
Global Fund contributed $155 million, compared with $1.5 million put in by
Nigeria.
"Most of the cost when it comes to HIV is the
commodities. What we need is to get down and be honest with ourselves—are we
investing in health?" Aliyu queried.
"HIV is important because it affects the productive
population. Health is an issue and we need to invest properly. We need to stop
this dependency culture."
Aliyu is among five professionals appointed last year to
head major health agencies in Nigeria to speak on the forum's theme "Does
leadership matter?"
Organisers of the forum said Nigerians expectations have
risen about the five, their capacity to change things, their plans to transform
their institutions, and how that will affect the lives of millions of
Nigerians.
The other health sector agency heads on the forum include
Faisal Shuaib of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Usman
Yusuf of the National Health Insurance Scheme and Chikwe Ihekweazu of the
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
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