Key players at the 3rd national council on aids holding in Abuja, are calling for added domestic funding which will include setting up national and state Aids trust funds.
They believe this will help to collate and create a mobilization structure for all resources to ensure adequate use.
TVC’s Kemi Balogun reports that the national HIV and AIDS response has so far been funded primarily by donor agencies but stakeholders at this meeting want an improved and sustainable domestic funding system put in place which will aid the national response.
At present, key donor agencies contribute about 70 percent of the total HIV response budget, 27 percent is contributed by the Nigerian government and 2 percent comes from the private sector.
This has proved highly inadequate especially since the major contributions from donor agencies may soon dry up
Nigeria spends about 40,000 naira which is about 112 dollars on ARVs and 50,000 naira which is also about 157 dollars on ARTs annually on each HIV patient which comed down to about 130 naira per patient, daily.
The major focus of this council meeting is how the country can take of its charge of its destiny, a subject key stakeholders believe is apt in the face of shrinking donor funding, inadequate domestic funding and a not so good health care system.
