The Federal Government received a sum of $294m to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 in the country, Sunday PUNCH reports.
The intervention grant was donated to the country through the Global Fund, a partnership designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, as well as epidemics.
Global Fund mobilises and invests more than $4bn a year to support programmes run by local experts in more than 100 countries.
In an audit report of 2020 and 2021, the organisation noted that a total of $294m was disbursed as a grant to Nigeria to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
“Nigeria has the third-highest number of HIV infections in the world; 1.7 million people are living with HIV and AIDS. It has the highest TB burden in Africa and the sixth-highest globally. Nigeria also had the highest number of global malaria cases in 2019, as well as the highest number of deaths. The country is, accordingly, the single biggest recipient of Global Fund grants, having been allocated over $1.5bn for the 2017-2019 and 2020-2022 funding cycles. The Global Fund has also allocated $294m to Nigeria to mitigate the impact of COVID-19,” it stated in a report.
There has been controversy surrounding the total amount of grants and internal donations received by the Federal Government to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus in the country.
In 2021, a coalition of civil society organisations urged the Federal Government to make available to the public the audit report of the expenses of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 detailing how the funds were disbursed to cushion the effect of the pandemic.
But the Executive Director of the Global Fund, Peter Sands, said the audit also found that Nigeria had challenges in absorbing COVID-19 funds invested through the Global Fund COVID-19 response mechanism and that the overall management of those funds needed significant improvement.
Sands added, “The audit also noted that there is a need for more work on domestic resource mobilisation, especially regarding TB and malaria. The Global Fund is committed to working with the Nigerian government and other partners to address the key issues and risks identified under the audit. We will work together to strengthen and implement appropriate systems as well as the relevant oversight frameworks.
“We are committed to supporting Nigeria in its efforts to strengthen systems for health, including procurement and supply chains, data systems, and data use to ensure people get the quality medicines they need when they need them. We will support the government’s and other partners’ efforts to improve the management of investments in response to COVID-19 by addressing the bottlenecks that delay the implementation of essential activities, including the GeneXpert and oxygen optimisation projects.”
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Centre for Disease and Control on Saturday raised the alarm over 880 additional coronavirus infections reported in Nigeria from July 2 to July 8.
Disclosing this on its official website, it said though there were no fatalities, Lagos was driving the nation’s latest COVID-19 surge, accounting for more than 90 per cent of the new infections with 750 cases.
According to the data, the new cases raised Nigeria’s infection toll to 258,517, while the fatality toll stood at 3,144.
The NCDC explained that about 4,206 people were still down with the virus while a total of 250,388 others in the country had so far been successfully treated and discharged since the outbreak in February 2020.
It added that apart from Lagos State, a further breakdown of the latest cases revealed that the Federal Capital Territory recorded 45 cases, followed by Rivers with 40 infections; Delta reported 11 cases, followed by Akwa Ibom, 11; Kano, five; Nasarawa, four; and Plateau, one.
The agency said Abia, Kaduna, and Sokoto reported no cases within the time frame.
The NCDC further stated that based on the prevailing risk from the virus, there was a need for religious organisations, community leaders, and Nigerians, in general, to take necessary precautions during the Eid-el-Kabir celebrations.
It added that the number of weekly COVID-19 cases had increased globally for the third consecutive week.
“We serve even as we battle concurrent public health threats – COVID-19, monkeypox, Cholera, etc. Our interest is not in delivering bad news but in equipping citizens with the information they need to stay safe. We are being reminded that COVID-19 has not gone anywhere. I understand the fatigue and urge to return to our normal lives. We can do this whilst staying safe. As we continue to celebrate responsibly and act to prevent a fifth COVID-19 wave,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the agency as saying.
However, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency said that the vaccines and boosters have continued to provide excellent protection against severe diseases.
