The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate has said Nigeria accounts for 30 percent of the world’s malaria burden with Kano State being one of the highest.
This came as The Global Fund, GF, said it was committing over $50 million to tackle malaria and other diseases in Kano State.
Prof. Pate who spoke yesterday when he and a delegation of Global Health partners paid a working visit to Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State, said the global health partners were in the country to work towards improving the health and well-being of Nigerians.
While soliciting the support of the government at all levels on counterpart funding to complement each other’s efforts, he said “We (along with our visitors) are here in Kano State as the first state we have decided to go to engage with leaders like you to improve the health of our population.
“Improved health is an investment in any society because that is the only investment that can guarantee productivity, prosperity, and investment. Health is at the center of any serious country’s development agenda and our president Bola Ahmed Tinubu has made a bold move in expectations, The Federal government is ready to partner and work with states towards improving the health population of the country so that we can unleash the population’s potential. Infectious diseases like malaria, have almost 30 percent of the world’s burden of malaria and Kano is one of the highest-burden states.
“So it is so important, that some of the good works that are being done by Kano need to be sustained or expanded with the intervention from the Global Health Partners. The partners have seen the picture of things and they are ready to support Nigeria, only if the states are committed to working together to achieve the objectives,”
On the $ 1 billion fund, the Executive Director of GF, Mr. Peter Sands said it would invest $1 billion in the next three years in the country out of which $50 million would be spent in Kano State.
According to him, “From Global Fund perspective, Kano is very important. We will invest about a billion dollars ($1 billion) in Nigeria in the next three years and 50 million of that will be invested in Kano. Nigeria does have the highest burden of malaria in the world with 200,000 Nigerians (mainly children and pregnant women) dying of malaria. Malaria is an evitable disease. Global Funds is fully behind you in your effort to beat these diseases, and improve the health and welfare of the people of Kano.”
Similarly, the World Health Organization, WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi, expressed the WHO’s readiness to support Nigeria in eradicating the killer disease, and the Kano State government over its rapid response to arrest the diphtheria outbreak, describing it as a exemplary role model in the fight against the disease.
On his part, Governor Yusuf said “Your intervention at this material time was very timely, I commend the efforts of developing partners, especially in the fight against HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and other diseases.
