Nigerian government reassured it commitment to work with private sectors in the country towards eradicating malaria. This came as the Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole, in his keynote address at the Agenda for the Private Sector Engagement Strategy#PSESPLAUNCH, canvassed for strategic partnership with private sector, to better muster resources for malaria eradication.
According to Prof. Adewole, Nigeria accounts for 32% of the annual 655,000 global estimate of malaria deaths, of which women and children are the worst hit. To control this epidemic, the Health Minister said significant progress was made by the Nigerian government and developing partners over the years, nevertheless, there exists a huge gap that needs to be redressed to align with the global agenda of fast tracking malaria elimination. Adewole further called on the private sector to assist in the fight especially in the area of investing in producing mosquito nets.
Stakeholders in Health Sector graced the event, which also saw to the unveiling and launching of the Malaria Private Sector Engagement Strategy by the Dangote Foundation.
National Malaria Ambassador and Chairman of the Dangote Foundation, Aliko Dangote GCON, in his speech, affirmed commitment in the fight to eradicate malaria. Calling for healthcare investors, donor, non-governmental organizations and stakeholders collaboration to eliminate malaria in Nigeria, Dangote stated "...Over the last ten years, the government of Nigeria and partners have actually committed over $1.3billion to ensure that malaria is brought under control. although this effort has led to significant control of malaria prevalence, by more than 8%, much more need to be done...".
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