To ensure an end to HIV/AIDS epidemic in Nigeria, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS, and a corporate group, the African Business Coalition for Health, ABCHealth, Thursday, signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU in Lagos.
Speaking in an in interview, UNAIDS Country Director for Nigeria, Dr. Erasmus Morah said the two organisations entered into the partnership to pursue a greater and better health for all Nigeria focusing on HIV/AIDS.
Morah said: “What the partnership says is that Nigeria is on the right part of ending AIDS. Nigeria today has almost 90 percent of people who are living on HIV that are on treatment.
“But there are two issues: What about the remaining 10 percent and how do we sustain the 90 percent who are already on treatment today. So, financing is the key but government cannot sustain all of these alone?
“But the truth is that government and the development partners are trying.
The partnership that we signed today will help Nigeria to sustain the achievement so far and also expand it to reach the remaining 10 percent.
“So, the partnership is aimed at bringing in private sector, other actors, state and federal health insurance schemes and integration of HIV in maternal and child health.”
He added: “Then, integration in other aspects of health so that the management and the cost become a bit more shared. We want shared responsibility where even individuals will do their own part.”
Also speaking, Chief Executive Officer of ABCHealth, Dr. Mories Atoki, said the partnership was a combination of a lot of things.
She said: “This actually aggregate some of our efforts in fostering for partnerships and alliances especially with an agency like UNAIDS.
“The idea is to go after strong partnerships, agencies that will compliment ABCHealth. We are a coalition of business communities, corporates across Africa, philanthropists who come together, bring competencies together, mobilize resources to promote and improve health across Africa.
“We cannot do it on our own as a private sector, we need technical experts like UNAIDS. UNAIDS, over the years, have demonstrated a lot of technical competence in the health space, particularly in the HIV/AIDS and we are willing to partner them to harness their competencies in that space, merge it with our resources to be able to improve out comes as far as health is concerned,” Atoki explained.
