Buhari launches N62bn trust fund to end HIV/AIDS

President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday in Abuja launched a sixty-two billion Naira (N62bn) trust fund to help Nigeria end AIDS as a public health threat and place more people living with HIV on treatment annually.

Speaking at the launch of the HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria (HTFN), the President pledged that his administration would continue to prioritize health interventions to address killer diseases and public health emergencies.

”At the last United Nations General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, I made a call for a renewed global action to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. He said.

According to the president, ending AIDS as a public health threat in Nigeria will require increased domestic funding.

In his words “We have continued to make good our commitment of placing more people living with HIV on treatment annually using national resources”.

President Buhari noted that Nigeria’s purposeful partnership with the private sector in the response to COVID 19 pandemic had provided a readily available financing solution to sustain the HIV response.

He then commended the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and the Nigeria Business Coalition Against AIDS for their efforts in establishing the HIV Trust Fund of Nigeria to secure a generation of babies free of HIV.