Report from Federal Ministry of Health.
The United Nations Secretary General’s Special Envoy on financing health MDGs and malaria, Mr. Alan Court has commended the Nigerian Government’s effort in reducing HIV/AIDS in Nassarawa State.
Mr. Court made this statement while on a courtesy call on the Minister of State, Health, Dr. khaliru Alhassan in his office in Abuja.
In his speech, Dr. Court said that he was on the visit to assess how Nigeria has made progress in the area of maternal and infant mortality and receive update on expansion of vaccination programmes and other intervention activities with the aim of finding ways to help the Ministry surmount its challenges.
In this regards, an update on priority intervention areas that would help Nigeria achieve the MDGs on time was given by key Directors of the Ministry to include, timely release of counterpart funding by the US Government.
To this end, Dr. Court said that he was negotiating and exploring the possibility of getting additional funds from World Bank to facilitate the purchase of life saving commodities. He added that more funds would be made available to Nigeria from Global Fund through UNICEF for malaria control.
Mr. Court however, called on the Federal Government to ensure that its own part of the counterpart funding is released as at when due as this often serves as a trigger to other development partners to do the same.
While responding, the Minister of State, Health, thanked the US envoy for his effort in procuring the funding of health activities in Nigeria and following through to see that the country remains a healthy one.
The Minister also urged all stake holders to harmonise actions and synergise with each other so that the MDG goals can be achieved on target.
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