Health
Donor cuts, govt inaction push HIV patients towards death, uncertainty in Rivers, Akwa Ibom (I)
Grace* spent years protecting two things: her health and a secret she never wanted exposed.
Every few months, a community health worker discreetly delivered her antiretroviral medicines to her home in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The arrangement allowed the bank worker to remain healthy without risking the questions that might follow if neighbours, customers, colleagues or fellow worshippers saw her entering an HIV treatment clinic.
That routine ended in February 2025.
Following international funding cuts that forced community drug delivery programmes to shut down, Grace had only one option: collect her medication herself from a treatment facility.
Someone recognised her walking into the HIV clinic, and within days, whispers spread through her church and neighbourhood.
According to her family, the stigma that followed was devastating. Ashamed and fearful of further humiliation, Grace stopped returning to the clinic for treatment.
By April this year, she was dead.
Her relatives believe her death was not simply the result of HIV, but of the collapse of the support system that had quietly kept her alive for years.
“If that support had remained,” her sister, Mary*, told PREMIUM TIMES, “she would still have been taking her drugs.”
Grace’s experience, PREMIUM TIMES found, mirrors those of many other people living with HIV in Akwa Ibom and Rivers states whose lives were thrown into uncertainty after international donor-funded community HIV programmes were scaled back in early 2025.
PREMIUM TIMES reported in January 2025 that the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, halted HIV Funding for Nigeria and other developing countries.
Across both states, patients, peer counsellors and community advocates described a response system that suddenly lost many of the people who had ensured patients remained on treatment, received psychosocial support and overcame the stigma that still surrounds HIV.
For Mercy*, another person living with HIV in Akwa Ibom, the withdrawal of donor-supported workers disrupted services and also created fear.
“The first thing that came to my mind was uncertainty,” she said. “Everything happened suddenly. Nobody prepared us.”
When she arrived at her treatment facility after the funding cuts, many of the familiar faces who had guided patients through counselling, documentation and treatment were gone.
“You asked questions, and they told you, Your people are not here.”
Those ‘people’, she explained, were the adherence counsellors, laboratory personnel, peer supporters and other workers funded through donor-supported programmes who guided patients through documentation, counselling and treatment.
Without them, many patients were left confused about how to navigate the clinics.”They knew us, followed up when we missed appointments and treated us with compassion,” Mercy said.
She fears that replacing donor funding with government ownership alone will not be enough unless authorities invest in trained personnel and patient-centred services.
“Medication alone is not enough. People also need encouragement. They need someone who genuinely cares whether they survive,” she said.
The withdrawal of donor support also ended programmes that many patients described as the backbone of HIV care outside hospitals.
Home-based care stopped, community HIV testing reduced, support groups that helped people cope with stigma were no longer available, and routine follow-up for patients who missed clinic appointments ceased.
When the support system collapsed
For Johnson*, a former community referral officer in Rivers State and a person living with HIV, the disappearance of home-based drug delivery remains one of the greatest losses in HIV response.
Every day after work, he travelled across communities delivering antiretroviral medicines to patients who could not safely visit treatment centres because of work schedules, lack of transport fare or fear of being recognised.
The programme ensured they never missed treatment. However, that support no longer exists. “Many of those people are no longer coming to the facilities, and we don’t know where some of them are anymore,” Johnson said.
According to him, patients who repeatedly miss appointments are eventually classified as “lost to follow-up”, a development that worries health workers and people living with HIV because interrupted treatment can lead to viral rebound, illness, increased transmission and, ultimately, preventable deaths.
Elizabeth Udo, Akwa Ibom State Coordinator of the Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Nigeria (NEPWHAN), said the organisation has witnessed similar experiences across the state since donor-funded community HIV programmes began to shrink.
“We have lost people,” she told PREMIUM TIMES.
“They did not die because HIV treatment stopped completely. Many died because the support systems that helped them remain healthy disappeared.”
According to Ms Udo, community-based HIV care extended far beyond delivering medicines.
Donor-funded programmes supported home visits, appointment reminders, adherence counselling, support groups, adolescent education, stigma-reduction campaigns and interventions for survivors of gender-based violence. They also helped patients manage side effects from medications and other chronic health conditions.
“We used to receive support for care and support programmes, adolescent education, stigma reduction, home visits and community meetings,” she said. “Today, all of those activities have stopped.”
She warned that the consequences may take years to emerge fully.
“When people stop coming for treatment, which will suppress their viral load, they don’t disappear from the epidemic. They actually disappear from the health system and may keep spreading the virus, thus increasing the number of people infected,” she said.
For Victoria*, a youth advocate living with HIV in Rivers State, the greatest casualty was not medicine but hope. She recalled how support groups once brought together dozens of young people living with HIV every month.
They discussed treatment, relationships, stigma, careers and mental health.
Peer mentors themselves living with HIV reassured newly diagnosed patients that the virus was no longer a death sentence.
“If I can live with HIV and still work in this hospital, you can also live your life,” Victoria said they often told frightened adolescents.
Those meetings stopped after donor funding was withdrawn. Members tried contributing money to sustain the meetings. It did not last. “Many of those who contributed had also lost the stipends they earned working as peer mentors,” she said.
Attendance dropped. “So did the hope those meetings gave many young people,” she added.
Peter*, another person living with HIV in Rivers State, said the uncertainty surrounding HIV funding has also fuelled stigma.
He recalled hearing people mock those living with HIV after reports emerged that the US was reviewing parts of its international health assistance. “Now that your drugs have been stopped, let’s see how all of you will survive.”
Although years of advocacy had strengthened him personally, he worries about newly diagnosed patients who are still struggling to accept their status.
“I have outgrown stigma, but many people haven’t,” he said.
Peter recalled accompanying another patient to a treatment facility where someone from his neighbourhood, unaware that he was also living with HIV, warned him not to sit in the waiting area reserved for HIV patients.
For many patients, he said, such encounters reinforce the fear that discourages people from testing for HIV or remaining in treatment.
Warnings went unheeded
While patients and advocates struggled to cope with the consequences of shrinking donor support, community organisations say they repeatedly warned the Rivers State Government that the transition away from donor funding required urgent planning.
A Rivers State coordinator of NEPWHAN, who requested anonymity for fear of victimisation, told PREMIUM TIMES that the network, alongside other community-based organisations, repeatedly appealed to the state government to be proactive, following the gradual withdrawal of international donor support, but received little response.
“My collaboration with the government has not been very strong,” she told PREMIUM TIMES. “We have written letters. We have sought meetings. We have continued to ask: now that donor partners are leaving, what is the state’s plan? Unfortunately, we have not seen the urgency this situation requires.”
According to her, donor-supported organisations such as the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria had funded hundreds of personnel working across treatment facilities in Rivers State for years.
She said many were not doctors or nurses but adherence counsellors, peer mentors, case managers, community trackers and laboratory support staff who formed the backbone of HIV care.
“They were the people following up patients, counselling them, ensuring they collected their medicines and giving them hope,” the Rivers State NEPWHAN coordinator said.
When donor support was reduced, many of those workers lost their jobs.
She said more than 300 workers engaged through donor-supported programmes had been affected, including 185 field personnel who worked directly with people living with HIV in communities.
Their departure, she said, has left overstretched government health workers struggling to fill the gap.
“People now go to facilities and spend the whole day waiting. Sometimes there is nobody to attend to them immediately. Even taking viral load samples has become difficult,” she said.
She stressed that the problem was not the commitment of government-employed health workers but the shortage of personnel.
Beyond clinical care, she said the funding cuts have also pushed many people living with HIV deeper into poverty.
Many of the peer counsellors and community workers who lost their stipends relied on the income not only to support their families but also to feed properly and maintain their own health.
“There are many people in our network who struggle even to pay transport fares to the clinic. Government needs to step in now because this is no longer just a donor issue. It is about protecting the health of Rivers people.”
She warned that if state governments fail to replace the services once funded by development partners, years of progress in HIV treatment and prevention could be reversed.
Beyond lives lost, the neglect continues to cause new infections. According to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare’s State of the Health of the Nation report 2025, Nigeria recorded 102,025 new HIV infections across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Of those new infections, Rivers State came second with 6,287, while Akwa Ibom State came fourth with 5,413.
The figures are particularly worrying given the existing HIV burden in both states.
A recent report by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), previously reported by PREMIUM TIMES, showed that Rivers has the highest number of people living with HIV in Nigeria, followed by Benue, while Akwa Ibom ranks third.
Donor support shrank, govt ownership failed to grow
The experiences of Grace, Mercy, Johnson, and Victoria and dozens of others interviewed by PREMIUM TIMES, point to a crisis that extends beyond individual hardship.
Interviews with people living with HIV, peer counsellors, community advocates, health workers and officials in Rivers and Akwa Ibom, supported by an analysis of budget documents, financial records and state HIV laws, indicate that the reduction in international donor support exposed longstanding weaknesses in the HIV response of both states.
For years, much of Nigeria’s HIV programme has relied on international partners, particularly the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund, to finance critical services ranging from HIV testing and laboratory support to adherence counselling, community drug distribution, home-based care and psychosocial support.
That dependence became more apparent in early 2025, when the US reviewed and terminated thousands of foreign assistance contracts funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department as part of a restructuring of overseas assistance.
Although support for life-saving antiretroviral medicines was later restored, many community-based HIV interventions that kept patients connected to treatment did not immediately return.
Health experts say those services were never intended to replace government responsibility. Rather, they were designed to complement state health systems while governments gradually assumed greater ownership of the HIV response.
A response built on donor dependence
For more than two decades, Nigeria’s HIV response has been one of Africa’s biggest public health success stories.
Millions of people who would otherwise have died now live healthy lives because they have uninterrupted access to life-saving antiretroviral therapy. Mother-to-child transmission has declined, viral suppression has improved, and HIV-related deaths have fallen.
Behind those gains is a reality that is less talked about, which is the fact that Nigeria’s HIV programme has depended overwhelmingly on international donors.
An analysis by NACA, titled ‘National AIDS Spending Assessment in Nigeria (2019-2021)’, shows that external partners financed 95.97 per cent of the country’s HIV response in 2021. By comparison, public funding from the federal and state governments accounted for just four per cent, while domestic corporations and non-profit organisations contributed 0.03 per cent.
According to NACA, since 2005, Nigeria has attracted more than $6 billion for HIV programmes, with four out of every $5 coming from external partners, principally PEPFAR and the Global Fund.
Private sector contribution has remained marginal, accounting for less than two per cent of total financing. That financing architecture transformed Nigeria’s HIV response.
PEPFAR emerged as the single largest financier of HIV care and treatment in Nigeria, spending $181 million on treatment services alone in 2021. During the same period, the Global Fund financed substantial portions of HIV care, laboratory services, programme management, health systems strengthening and HIV testing.
Donor funding extended far beyond the procurement of medicines. It paid for adherence counsellors who encouraged patients to remain on treatment, peer mentors who supported newly diagnosed clients, community workers who traced people who missed clinic appointments, laboratory personnel, data officers, home-based drug delivery teams, community testing campaigns and psychosocial support groups.
Those were the same services that Grace relied upon to receive her medication discreetly, and the same interventions that Joy, Johnson, Victoria and Peter told PREMIUM TIMES had disappeared after donor-supported programmes were scaled back.
Recognising the risk of this dependence, the federal government, through NACA, has in recent years pursued what it describes as an HIV Sustainability Agenda, a transition strategy aimed at shifting ownership of HIV programmes from international partners to Nigerian governments.
The strategy envisions state and federal governments gradually taking responsibility for financing and managing HIV programmes while development partners provide technical support rather than directly implementing services.
NACA says the objective is a ‘new business model’ in which the government assumes dominant responsibility for managing and financing the national HIV response.
PREMIUM TIMES also reported that in June, the Nigerian government unveiled a new HIV plan, outlining a transition from donor-supported interventions to a domestically financed and government-led response to HIV/AIDS.
That transition has become increasingly urgent, especially as the World Health Organisation has targeted to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. UNAIDS estimates that the world remains significantly short of the funding needed to achieve global HIV targets.
For Nigeria, the challenge became more immediate in early 2025 after the US restructured its foreign assistance programmes, leading to the termination of thousands of USAID- and State Department-funded contracts worldwide.
PREMIUM TIMES reported in March last year that the US government ended 83 per cent of USAID programmes and cancelled 5,200 contracts, which included HIV intervention programmes and contracts.
Although waivers later ensured the continuation of life-saving antiretroviral medicines through PEPFAR, many community-based interventions, including outreach testing, peer support, community drug distribution, adherence counselling and patient follow-up, were disrupted.
The funding uncertainty exposed a question Nigeria had postponed for years: what happens when donors step back before governments are ready to take over?
Editor’s Note: * The names marked with asterisks have been changed to protect the privacy and identities of vulnerable individuals featured in this report.
This reporting was supported by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID).
It was 11 a.m., and the sun was full over Kyaurawa, a remote community in the Birnin Kudu LGA of Jigawa State. Along the narrow, rough pathway surrounded by dry bushes, scattered mud houses and isolated compounds appear intermittently across the quiet landscape.
Inside one of the huts, Halima Umar-Dagaji was cooking beside a pile of firewood. The mother of six lost a child years ago. Like many mothers in the community, Mrs Umar-Dagaji struggled to provide her children with nutritious meals. Families had little knowledge about balanced diets or child nutrition.
“In the morning, we usually eat leftover food from the previous night,” she said. “In the afternoon, we cook rice, beans or drink milk. At night, we mostly eat foods made from millet, guinea corn and maize.”
However, things began to change after nutrition-focused interventions were introduced to the community. The interventions, organised by the government, donor agencies and other organisations, are part of broader efforts to improve nutrition outcomes among rural households in Jigawa, one of the states with Nigeria’s worst child malnutrition indicators.
“We were taught how to prepare nutritious meals using vegetables. We also learnt about personal hygiene, saving money through cooperative groups and how to improve milk production from our cows,” Mrs Umar-Dagaji said.
Yet, despite the interventions, child malnutrition remains widespread across the state, even though women in Kyaurawa said they have seen improvements, especially in their children’s health.
The numbers behind the crisis
Nearly half of deaths among children under age five are linked to undernutrition, and most occur in low- and middle-income countries, according to 2022 data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The 2023–2024 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey show that 56 per cent of children in Jigawa are stunted. The national average is 30.8 per cent. Yet, the Jigawa figures reflect an improvement from the 64 per cent recorded in 2018, likely linked to expanded community interventions.
Still, the burden remains heavy.
UNICEF estimates that about two million Nigerian children suffer from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) every year, with northern Nigeria accounting for most of the cases. The agency says worsening poverty, rising food prices, insecurity and poor dietary diversity are pushing more families into nutrition crises across the region.
Recent food security assessments by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) also warned that rising inflation and declining household purchasing power are reducing access to protein-rich foods, fruits and vegetables, especially among vulnerable households in northern Nigeria.
Nutrition experts say the slight decline in malnutrition over the years may be linked to expanded community interventions, increased access to treatment for severe acute malnutrition, improved awareness of breastfeeding and child-feeding practices, and growing collaboration among health, agriculture, and social protection programmes.
Sahel Consulting Limited, an agriculture and nutrition-focused consulting firm, runs one of the programmes.
Umar Ibrahim, chairman of the Jauro Muhammadu Dangaje Dagaji Kyaurawa community, said improved livestock support and nutrition education have improved child health outcomes in the area.
Mr Ibrahim said backyard gardening, improved milk production and nutrition awareness campaigns by the organisation have also helped many households improve children’s diets and overall health. “Since we started planting vegetables, we no longer see malnutrition like before.”
Mrs Umar-Dagaaji corroborated the claim. “Over the past one to two years, we have not had malnutrition cases among our children,” she said.
She said Kyaurawa residents access healthcare mainly through the Birnin Kudu General Hospital and the Primary Healthcare Centre in Kangire, while a solar-powered borehole installed through Sahel Consulting’s intervention has improved access to water and hygiene.
‘At first, we rejected them’
In Danzabarma, residents said they were initially sceptical about the intervention programmes because many people did not understand their purpose or trust outsiders entering the remote settlement.
It took officials months to build trust and explain their activities before people gradually accepted them.
“At first, we rejected them because we did not understand what they wanted to do. They spent almost a year talking to us and explaining things carefully before we finally realised they genuinely wanted to help us,” Ibrahim Nagaya, a resident, said.
The intervention first focused on improving livestock healthcare and access to clean water before expanding into household nutrition, women’s empowerment, and income-support activities.
Women were trained in small-scale businesses, savings systems, and income-generating activities.
“Before now, most women stayed at home without any source of income,” Mr Nagaya said, adding that they were trained in different business activities so they could support their families and improve household feeding.
The programme also introduced community savings structures that residents now rely on during emergencies and hardship.
“We now contribute money to a community account. Both men and women participate, and when somebody has a problem, the community supports that person from the savings,” he added.
Residents also said improved water access and livestock assistance boosted milk yields and animal health. Previously, livestock drank from polluted streams, leading to disease and reduced production.
“Our animals used to drink from dirty streams where they also urinated and defecated,” he said. “Now they drink clean water from boreholes, and their health has improved.”
Residents were also trained by Sahel Consulting in improved animal-feeding practices, including pasture cultivation and improved livestock nutrition.
“Before, most cattle produced about two litres of milk, but now some produce up to five litres,” he said.
Mr Nagaya added that the intervention also improved awareness around maternal nutrition and breastfeeding within households.
Residents said training on milk preservation and processing helped reduce waste and improve household income.
“In the past, a lot of milk got spoiled when we could not sell it quickly. Now we have learned how to preserve and process it properly,” Mr Nagaya added.
Linking agriculture to nutrition
In Danzabarma, residents said the nutrition-focused interventions are gradually changing how families think about feeding, especially for women and children.
Ibrahim Ahmad, a resident, said the intervention helped residents understand the relationship between maternal nutrition and child health, especially for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers, resulting in noticeable improvements.
The nutrition intervention was implemented as part of the Advancing Local Dairy Development in Nigeria (ALDDN) project, which was supported by the firm.
Isa Garba, a programme officer for the ALDDN Project in Jigawa, said the intervention focused on helping rural households understand how agriculture and livestock production could directly improve family nutrition.
Mr Garba said the programme worked with 6,030 dairy and 7,361 non-dairy farming households across several hard-to-reach communities in the state. He stated the numbers of female dairy and non-dairy beneficiaries as 2,787 and 3,538, respectively.
“During cooking demonstrations, families bring food items available in their homes such as millet, sorghum, moringa and beans,” he said.
Mr Garba said that facilitators then demonstrate how to properly combine the foods to improve their nutritional value for women and children.
The programme also introduced homestead gardening to support household dietary diversity and improve access to vegetables.
He explained that interested families received vegetable seedlings for crops such as tomatoes, carrots, and moringa, along with practical support in backyard farming techniques.
Also, community-based extension workers were deployed to support households and monitor adoption of the practices.
He added that some households now consume vegetables grown in their gardens, while others sell parts to generate income.
“Some families told us they no longer take their children to the hospital as frequently as before because they have improved what the children eat,” Mr Garba said.
The intervention also supported water access in several underserved settlements by constructing solar-powered boreholes connected to public taps for domestic use and livestock watering.
The project also identified community nutrition champions and cooperative groups to sustain the nutrition and gardening activities after the intervention phased out earlier this year, in January.
“We believe the communities can continue these practices themselves because local champions and cooperative groups are now leading many of the activities,” he added.
Health access, lingering concerns
Malnutrition remains a major challenge in parts of Jigawa, where access to quality primary healthcare is limited.
Danzabarma residents rely mainly on the Birnin Kudu General Hospital and Kangeri PHC, both about 30 minutes by road, for medical care.
Mr Nagaya said that the community having no health facility of its own means residents spend about N1,000 on transport to the nearest hospital for care. For many low-income families, this is a heavy financial burden.
“When children are constantly sick, all your money goes to hospital treatment. But when families are healthy, the money can be used for other things,” he said.
At Kangeri PHC, health workers attested that community-based nutrition programmes and routine nutrition counselling were helping families identify malnutrition earlier and seek treatment before children’s conditions become severe.
Umar Abdullahi, the officer in charge of the facility, said dozens of children under five visit the centre weekly for nutrition screening and treatment under the Community Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) programme.
The facility works closely with volunteers of the Jigawa State ‘Masaki Initiative’ across surrounding communities to identify children with signs of malnutrition and refer severe cases for treatment.
The Jigawa State Primary Health Care Development Agency (JSPHCDA), with support from UNICEF, runs the joint community-led initiative to empower local communities on childcare.
“We receive referrals from many settlements every week,” Mr Abdullahi said. “The volunteers screen children within the communities and send severe cases to this facility for treatment.”
He said between January 2025 and February 2026, the facility received 272 cartons and treated about 393 children.
The facility combines nutrition treatment with continuous health education targeted at improving feeding practices among caregivers.
Most children brought to the facility arrive with complications linked to SAM, including diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, skin infections and visible body weakness.
“When a child comes, we check the mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) and body weight,” he said. “Children with severe complications are referred to stabilisation centres, while others are admitted here and treated using Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF).”
Children weighing between 3.9kg and 4.9kg are given 11 sachets weekly. “Children between 5kg and 6.9kg receive 18 sachets, while those above that may receive 21 sachets, depending on their condition,” he added.
Despite occasional supply delays, the facility maintains inventory records to monitor distribution and ensure accountability in the use of RUTF supplies.
Amina Kimjiri, a resident of Jahun LGA, recalled how her 10-month-old child suddenly became severely ill after developing symptoms linked to malnutrition.
Mrs Kimjiri said the child became weak, with a swollen stomach and thinning limbs. Health workers diagnosed the child with SAM and immediately enrolled the child on treatment using RUTF.
Sustaining the gains
Abubakar Abali, officer-in-charge of the Jahun Urban Maternity Centre, said community-based nutrition interventions and increased awareness campaigns are helping caregivers identify malnutrition symptoms early and provide treatment before complications worsen.
Mr Abali noted that one major focus of the intervention is correcting long-held misconceptions about breastfeeding and child-feeding practices.
“There is a belief in some communities that once a woman becomes pregnant again, she should stop breastfeeding the child. Even if the child is two or three months old, the woman would be encouraged either by her peers or family members to stop breastfeeding the baby,” he said.
Speaking on Masaki volunteers, he said the volunteers operate across surrounding communities to identify malnourished children early and connect them to treatment services.
He explained that the referral system allows health workers to prepare ahead of clinic days and helps caregivers access treatment more quickly.
The facility conducts home visits and follow-up monitoring to ensure caregivers properly administer RUTF and other nutritional supplements given to malnourished children.
According to him, caregivers are required to return empty sachets during follow-up visits as part of accountability and monitoring measures.
Community nutrition response
In Garin Dinya, one of the Masaki nutrition sites in Jahun LGA, Shamsia Abdullahi spends her Wednesdays and Thursdays moving between settlements, screening children for signs of malnutrition and teaching mothers how to prepare nutritious meals with locally available food.
Mrs Abdullahi, who heads the Garin Dinya Masaki site, said her work mainly involves counselling mothers, conducting food demonstrations, and identifying children who require urgent medical attention.
Another volunteer, Hassana Idrisu, said community volunteers also follow up on severe cases referred to health facilities.
“We call the health workers at Jahun Urban Maternity to confirm whether the mothers arrived,” Mrs Idrisu said. “Sometimes we also speak with husbands to encourage them to allow their wives to continue treatment for the children.”
‘Cases have reduced by 75 per cent’
Jahun LGA was the initial pilot phase for the Masaki Initiative when it was introduced in 2018, before expanding to other LGAs in 2020
The Nutrition Focal Person for Jahun LGA, Suleiman Muda, noted that malnutrition cases in the area declined significantly through the nutrition interventions introduced by the Jigawa State government and development partners.
“Jahun is among the 27 LGAs implementing the CMAM programme in Jigawa State. As of now, cases of SAM have reduced by about 75 per cent in Jahun,” Mr Muda said.
He explained that each local government provides stipends to community volunteers and health workers attached to the programme, adding that hard-to-reach communities are linked to nearby health facilities where children are screened before severe cases are referred to CMAM centres for treatment.
Also, children diagnosed with SAM are enrolled in Outpatient Therapeutic Programme (OTP) centres where RUTF is administered according to body weight and nutritional condition.
However, Mr Muda noted that nutrition services in Jahun still depend heavily on support from the state government and development partners, particularly for the supply of RUTF and other nutrition commodities.
He added that Jahun previously operated five OTP centres, but shortages of RUTF supplies forced authorities to reduce the number to two centres at Jahun Urban Maternity and Aujara.
Interventions reducing malnutrition – Officials
Speaking with PREMIUM TIMES, the Director at the State Primary Health Care Development Agency (JSPHCDA), Hassan Shuaibu, said the state expanded its CMAM programme after worsening food insecurity was observed in the Sahelian LGAs of Jigawa in 2020.
Mr Shuaibu said tackling malnutrition requires collaboration beyond the health sector, with agriculture, women’s affairs and community development programmes all playing important roles in improving nutrition outcomes.
He said the state introduced the “Masaki” initiative to identify malnourished children early through grassroots screening and nutrition counselling.
He added that the Jigawa government commits about N250 million annually as counterpart funding for procuring RUTF, while local governments also support community nutrition activities across the state.
He said that the interventions are increasingly being integrated into routine maternal and child healthcare services in many facilities.
“We encourage mothers to initiate breastfeeding immediately after delivery and maintain exclusive breastfeeding,” he said. “We also carry out home visits to educate families on hygiene, handwashing and proper feeding practices.”
Mr Shuaibu said the state has also introduced livelihood support programmes aimed at improving household nutrition and family income.
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“Some women receive chickens and goats to support household earnings, while others are trained in backyard gardening and food production,” he said.
“The idea is to improve family income so households can afford better diets.”
He added that nutrition awareness campaigns now involve not only mothers, but also men, religious leaders, youth groups and community leaders.
The official said the state currently operates CMAM sites across 18 LGAs and plans to expand community-based nutrition services further in the coming years.
“We are gradually reducing malnutrition, but we are not yet there,” he said. “There is still a lot to achieve.”
UNICEF backs community-based nutrition interventions
UNICEF Nutrition Manager for the Kano Field Office, Karanveer Singh, said the organisation’s support in Jigawa focuses on strengthening both prevention and treatment efforts through the state government’s community-based nutrition programmes.
Mr Singh said while treatment for severely malnourished children remains important, the broader goal is to prevent children from falling into severe malnutrition.
“For every naira contributed by the state government, UNICEF provides a matching contribution,” Mr Singh said. “If the state provides N250 million, UNICEF adds another N250 million, making it possible to procure RUTF worth N500 million.”
He described the Masaki initiative as one of Nigeria’s most extensive community-based nutrition programmes, noting that the government designed the intervention to identify malnutrition cases early at the community level before they become severe.
The programme has evolved into what officials now describe as “Masaki 2.0”, a broader intervention coordinated by the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
Mr Singh said the intervention also brings together sectors such as agriculture, water and sanitation, women’s affairs, and education to address the multiple factors driving malnutrition.
“If food is not available or affordable, the health sector alone cannot solve the problem,” he said. “Agriculture, education, water, sanitation and women empowerment all play critical roles.”
As part of the intervention, about 1,200 vulnerable households in selected LGAs received vegetable seedlings, fruit tree saplings and poultry birds to improve household nutrition and dietary diversity.
Mr Singh said changing long-held feeding practices and cultural beliefs requires continuous engagement with families and communities.
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The Nigerian government has strengthened its partnership with China to expand cancer care through technology transfer, professional training, research and expansion of radiotherapy capacity.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Iziaq Salako, disclosed this while delivering the opening address at the LINK Global Summit on Innovation and Practice in Oncology at the China National Convention Centre in Beijing, China.
This is according to a statement issued on Saturday and signed by Ado Bako, Assistant Director, Information and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
The statement added that Nigeria also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with LinaTech, a Chinese company specialising in advanced radiation therapy solutions.
Cancer burden
Salako said cancer remained a national priority, noting that Nigeria recorded an estimated 127,763 new cancer cases and 79,542 deaths in 2022.
He said breast, prostate and cervical cancers accounted for more than 40 per cent of cancer mortality in the country.
According to the minister, Nigeria’s mortality-to-incidence ratio improved from 62.3 per cent in 2022 to 59.6 per cent in 2024, although he acknowledged that “significant work remained to be done.”
He said the government had, since May 2023, accelerated interventions across cancer prevention, awareness, early detection, treatment, financing, infrastructure, and research.
Salako cited the introduction of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine into routine immunisation in October 2023, saying more than 14 million girls aged nine to 14 years had been reached.
He also mentioned the National Initiative for Cancer Early Detection, Screening and Coordinated Access to Network Care (NICE-SCAN), as well as initiatives of the Task Force for the Elimination of Cervical Cancer, as part of efforts to improve early detection and referral.
China partnership
The minister said the emerging partnership with China would provide technical assistance in radiotherapy, support joint research and development, facilitate academic exchanges, and build professional capacity.
He said Nigeria was a founding African partner of the LINK Global Oncology Alliance and had also participated in the inauguration of the Radiotherapy Working Group of the China-Africa Hospital Alliance.
Salako said Nigeria wanted the cooperation agreement to result in a joint work plan with designated focal persons and quarterly milestones.
“We want to see the twinning of our cancer centres of excellence, the National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment(NICRAT), and our tertiary hospitals like the National Hospital, Abuja, with the Chinese cancer hospitals,” he said.
He also called for the establishment of a designated clinical training base in Nigeria to serve as a West African hub for advanced radiotherapy training.
He said Nigerian radiation oncologists, medical physicists, radiotherapy technologists and biomedical engineers should also have opportunities for fellowship training in China.
Beyond equipment
Salako said Nigeria’s long-term objective was not simply to acquire cancer equipment but to develop the technical and human capacity required to install, maintain and eventually manufacture cancer technologies locally.
“Machines without people are monuments,” he said, stressing that trained personnel, maintenance systems and sustainable technical support must back every linear accelerator installed.
He said Nigeria would also pursue technology transfer, local assembly and servicing of radiotherapy and imaging equipment, joint clinical trials, cancer registry-linked research, artificial intelligence-assisted treatment planning, adaptive radiotherapy and tele-oncology collaborations by 2030.
The minister said the government’s incentives for health manufacturing, including zero-duty and zero-VAT measures, provided an enabling environment for investment in local production and technology transfer.
Cancer treatment, research
Mr Salako said six cancer centres of excellence were being developed, with three already completed and commissioned in Katsina, Enugu and Benin.
He said the centres were equipped with modern linear accelerators, while work on the remaining three was progressing.
He also disclosed that President Bola Tinubu had approved the procurement and installation of 35 additional linear accelerators between 2026 and 2028 to expand access to radiotherapy further.
The minister said the government had also strengthened NICRAT, which had trained about 140 early-career cancer scientists and supported 24 research grants.
ALSO READ: Cancer Care: Nigeria has only eight certified radiotherapy centres – Official
He identified the National Cancer Access Programme, Catastrophic Health Insurance Scheme, National Cancer Health Fund, and Social Determinants of Cancer Care Fund as mechanisms to improve access to cancer medicines and care while alleviating the financial burden on patients and families.
Salako said the interventions were being implemented under the Nigeria National Cancer Control Plan 2026–2030, which prioritises prevention, decentralised diagnosis and treatment, financial risk protection, oncology workforce development, clinical trials and cancer registries.
He also mentioned the recent inauguration of the Blood Cancer Consortium as part of efforts to enhance coordination in the national cancer-control response.
He stated that the government aimed for the China partnership to help translate oncology innovations into tangible improvements in patient care.
“Innovation in oncology is meaningful only where it reaches the patient. Let this summit be remembered not for what was displayed, but for what was delivered. Nigeria is ready, our plan is costed, our partners are welcome, and the patients are waiting,” he said.
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