The UK has pledged £1 billion to Nigeria’s fight against malaria and other diseases from 2024 to 2026.
Ebere Anyachukwu, health adviser at the British High Commission, announced this on World Malaria Day in an interview with NAN.
This contribution supplements existing funds from other donors and will primarily support the procurement of insecticides, treated bed nets, malaria diagnostics, and chemoprevention efforts.
“There are some states in Nigeria where malaria is seasonal. Those are states where chemoprevention is used to prevent children from coming down with malaria,“ he said.
“In those states, malaria spreads in a few months within a year, and during that period, there is a high level of malaria transmission in children, resulting in lots of deaths.”
The health adviser said children in such states are usually given malaria drugs, whether or not they have the infection.
He said the UK is a big contributor to the global fund, currently supporting about 13 states in Nigeria.
He listed the states to include Adamawa, Delta, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Yobe and Taraba.
“With the global funding support, there has been a significant reduction of malaria-related deaths in children in Nigeria,“ Anyachukwu said.
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