Executive Secretary of Country Coordinating Mechanism in Nigeria, Dr. Fatai Bello, on Monday said a grant of $335m had been released by Global Fund, a United Nations agency, to fight HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis in the country for the next three years.
Bello, who spoke in Calabar during the commencement of five-day retreat organised by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS for principal recipients and sub-recipients, said the fund would cater for the second phase of the programme.
He said the grant was formally signed on Thursday at a ceremony attended by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Pius Anyim, in Abuja.
According to him, the funds will be managed by the NACA, Society for Family Health, Association for Reproductive and Family Health and Institute of Human Virology of Nigeria.
He said $266m would be used to manage cases of HIV while tuberculosis treatment would gulp $69m.
Bello said $200m was released in the first phase of the programme, which lasted for two years.
"During the first phase, we had a lot of challenges. We had some in terms of storage facilities an transportation, but we have worked very hard to overcome them," he said.
However, the Director-General of NACA, Prof. John Idoko, who was represented by the Director of Policy and Strategy, Dr. Alex Ogundipe, said Nigeria was one of the few countries to experience a drop in HIV cases in the last two years.
Idoko said, "I think we are achieving a lot of mileage. Nigeria is one of the few countries that are experiencing a drop in terms of new cases. There are about three million people living with HIV in Nigeria, it means these people must be treated to prolong their lives. This is second to South Africa.
"We have treated 172, 000 in the last two years and by 2015, we would have treated 223,000 and this costs a lot of resources. The programme signed last Thursday is worth N85bn and it will enable us to achieve the target."
