Health
Nigeria unveils new HIV plan, seeks shift from donor dependence to domestic financing
Nigeria has unveiled a new National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan (NSP) 2026–2030, outlining a transition from donor-supported interventions to a domestically financed and government-led response to HIV/AIDS.
The plan, presented on Thursday in Abuja, comes amid declining external funding and growing calls for Nigeria to assume greater ownership of its health system, particularly in sustaining long-term HIV interventions.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony, the Director-General of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), Temitope Ilori, said Nigeria’s HIV response had reached a critical point that requires a strategic reset in line with emerging realities.
Ms Ilori said the country had recorded significant progress over the past two decades, including reductions in new infections and improved treatment access, but noted that changing global and financial conditions demanded a new approach.
She explained that the new strategic plan represents a recalibration rather than a replacement of the existing framework and aligns Nigeria’s response with emerging evidence and global priorities.
“This new Strategic Plan reflects lessons learned from implementation, new evidence from the National HIV Estimates and the need to reposition the response in a rapidly changing global environment,” she said.
Shift to domestic ownership
Ms Ilori said declining external funding and fragmented programme structures had made it necessary for Nigeria to adopt a government-led and government-owned response model.
According to her, the NSP prioritises the integration of HIV services into national systems across sectors, including health, education, youth development, gender and justice.
She added that the plan was developed through extensive consultations involving government institutions, civil society organisations, development partners, private sector actors and community networks.
“This Strategic Plan calls on all stakeholders to renew their commitment and work collectively to achieve a resilient, equitable, and sustainable HIV response for Nigeria,” she said.
Framework
Presenting the framework, NACA’s Deputy Director of Policy, Planning and Coordination, Mariam Ezekwe, said Nigeria’s HIV response had reached a decisive point, with notable achievements but persistent gaps that require structural reforms.
Ms Ezekwe said the country had made substantial gains in reducing infections and expanding access to treatment, but stressed that the next phase must focus on sustainability and stronger system integration.
She outlined the country’s current realities, describing a system that had made progress but still faced structural weaknesses in financing and service delivery.
“Fifty-two per cent reduction in new infections since 2010, and just about 80 per cent of People Living with HIV/AIDS know their status in 2025,” she said.
“These are the latest data from the Spectrum estimate. And currently we have an estimated 1,985,284 people living with HIV/AIDS.”
She added that the NSP prioritises legislative financing, health insurance expansion, and integration of HIV services into primary healthcare systems.
Private sector, faith groups seek deeper integration
During a panel discussion on domestic financing and sustainability, stakeholders called for stronger private sector participation, expanded insurance coverage and formal integration of faith-based organisations into the national response.
Representing the Nigeria Business Coalition Against AIDS (NIBUCCA), Opeyemi Yekini said private sector actors should be treated as co-owners of the HIV response rather than mere contributors.
Mr Yekini noted that businesses increasingly recognise that workforce health directly affects productivity and economic stability.
Also speaking, Executive Secretary of the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), Tajudeen Ibrahim, said Nigeria’s transition strategy extends beyond enrolling people living with HIV into health insurance schemes and includes strengthening systems capable of sustaining HIV financing after donor support declines.
Mr Ibrahim said governments at different levels were already committing resources to HIV programmes, but weak tracking and reporting mechanisms made it difficult to determine the full extent and impact of domestic investments.
He said strengthening financial accountability and visibility would be essential to demonstrating country ownership and ensuring resources are used efficiently.
“There are several mechanisms that we are currently using to fund health, and these mechanisms need to be properly tracked. As part of Global Fund support to the country, we are investing in strengthening our public financial management system,” he said.
Emmanuel Okechukwu, co-chair of the Nigeria Interfaith Coalition on AIDS (NIFCOB-AIDS), also called for the formal integration of faith-based organisations into the national HIV response framework.
He said faith institutions had long played a central role in providing care and social support, particularly at the community level.
“The faith-based community is asking for integration, both in policy and programming. If you want to attain universal health coverage, you must go to the people who are in the grassroots to provide the healthcare communities require,” he said.
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System integration by 2030
The NSP 2026–2030 outlines a long-term goal of eliminating parallel HIV programmes and embedding interventions within routine government systems.
NACA said implementation of the plan would increasingly rely on domestic financing, strengthened health insurance systems, digital health expansion and coordinated multisectoral accountability mechanisms.
By 2030, Nigeria aims to sustain HIV control through integrated systems fully owned and financed at national and subnational levels.
The immediate past chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Lagos State chapter, Babajide Saheed, has challenged the interpretation of figures showing that Lagos recorded 10,430 new HIV cases in 2025, arguing that the data reflects routine HIV testing rather than newly diagnosed infections.
Mr Saheed made the clarification on Channels Television during The Morning Brief show on Wednesday while reacting to figures from the ”State of the Health of the Nation Report 2025,” which have sparked widespread discussion on social media.
The report indicates that Lagos recorded 10,430 new HIV cases in 2025, the highest among Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and higher than the combined figures for Kaduna, Adamawa and the FCT.
During the programme, the television anchors questioned why Lagos continued to record such high numbers despite years of HIV awareness campaigns and prevention efforts.
Interpretation
Responding, Mr Saheed said the figures should not be interpreted as newly diagnosed HIV infections.
According to him, the numbers largely represent HIV positivity from routine testing carried out among people already receiving treatment, alongside newly diagnosed cases.
“It is routine testing,” he said repeatedly during the interview, urging viewers to refer to the clarification issued by the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA).
He explained that people living with HIV routinely undergo tests while receiving antiretroviral treatment, and those results are captured in health records.
However, despite disagreeing with the interpretation of the figures, Mr Saheed acknowledged that Lagos continues to bear a significant HIV burden.
He described the situation as “a red flag”, noting that Lagos, alongside states such as Rivers and Benue, has consistently recorded high HIV numbers over the years.
Factors driving the trend
Mr Saheed attributed the trend to a combination of reduced international donor funding, economic hardship and challenges accessing HIV treatment.
He said funding cuts by international partners, coupled with Nigeria’s economic situation, may have contributed to disruptions in HIV services.
“If people cannot afford to feed themselves, how can they afford transportation to the hospital?” he said.
He urged the federal government to increase domestic funding for HIV programmes, invest in local production of antiretroviral medicines, strengthen public awareness campaigns and decentralise HIV treatment to primary healthcare centres and private facilities.
Mr Saheed also called for intensified public education on HIV prevention, including condom use, abstinence and early testing, particularly among young people and women, whom he identified among the groups most affected.
PREMIUM TIMES review
A review of the 2025 Final State of the Health of the Nation Report, produced by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, confirmed that Lagos recorded 10,430 new HIV cases in 2025, down from 14,622 in 2024.
The report also shows that Lagos recorded the highest number of reported new HIV cases among the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Further review of the data shows that, aside from Lagos, the highest figures were recorded in Rivers (6,287), Kano (6,010), Akwa Ibom (5,413), Taraba (4,854), Benue (4,804), Anambra (4,468) and Kaduna (3,699).
Other states
The report revealed that other states recorded comparatively lower figures, including Adamawa (2,989), Bauchi (2,736), FCT (2,764), Sokoto (2,592), Abia (2,546), Cross River (2,545), Imo (2,539), Delta (2,469), Nasarawa (2,410), Borno (2,311), Zamfara (2,134), Ogun (2,107), Plateau (2,084), Niger (2,020), Ebonyi (2,015), Oyo (1,910), Jigawa (1,776), Kogi (1,752), Ondo (1,622), Edo (1,619), Kebbi (1,572), Katsina (1,541), Yobe (1,483), Enugu (1,479), Kwara (1,371), Osun (1,093), Gombe (1,083), Bayelsa (982) and Ekiti (462).
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The report also shows that Ekiti recorded the lowest figure nationwide, followed by Bayelsa, Gombe, Osun, Kwara, Enugu and Yobe, while Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Akwa Ibom, Taraba and Benue recorded the highest numbers.
NACA’s earlier clarification
In April, NACA cautioned against interpreting similar state-by-state HIV figures as representing the actual burden of the disease, saying they had been taken out of context.
The agency explained that the figures reflected HIV positivity from routine testing conducted in health facilities and should not be used to estimate HIV prevalence or incidence or rank states by disease burden. It said such data are influenced by factors including population size, testing coverage and reporting practices.
NACA also warned that HIV data should only be generated, interpreted, and disseminated by authorised government health institutions, in line with established protocols, to avoid misleading the public.
Nigeria has launched its first public-facing Mental Health Policy Commitment Tracker, a digital platform designed to independently monitor implementation of the country’s mental health laws and policies amid concerns over slow progress in carrying out key reforms.
Developed by advocacy organisation Nigerian Mental Health (NMH), the tracker was officially launched virtually on Monday after an initial public unveiling in May.
NMH announced the launch in a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES.
According to the organisation, the platform enables policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations and members of the public to monitor progress on commitments under the National Mental Health Act and related policies, including mental health financing, workforce development, treatment access and state-level reforms.
Why the tracker matters
Late President Muhammadu Buhari signed the National Mental Health Bill into law in January 2023 after two failed legislative attempts dating back to 2003.
The legislation replaced the outdated Lunacy Act and marked a major shift in Nigeria’s approach to mental healthcare by strengthening the rights of people living with mental health conditions and providing for institutions such as a Department of Mental Health Services and a Mental Health Fund.
However, more than three years later, implementation of several provisions of the law has remained slow.
According to NMH, key institutional structures required under the Act, including the Department of Mental Health, have yet to be fully established.
The organisation also said the federal government missed its December 2025 target to fully decriminalise attempted suicide, while implementation of the 2023 National Mental Health Policy and the country’s first Suicide Prevention Policy Framework has been limited.
It said these implementation gaps informed the development of the tracker, which is intended to independently verify whether mental health commitments are being translated into concrete action.
Speaking at the launch, NMH founder Chime Asonye said policy commitments should be accompanied by measurable implementation.
“Visibility must be matched by measurable execution,” he said, adding that the platform is designed to ensure commitments lead to tangible legal, institutional and service delivery outcomes.
According to NMH, the tracker serves as a public dashboard that aggregates government data, legislative updates, budget documents, verified stakeholder submissions and community-reported evidence.
Each policy commitment is assigned an implementation status, such as “Not Started, In Progress, Delayed or Completed”, allowing users to monitor progress across the federal and state levels.
The platform tracks regulatory milestones under the National Mental Health Act, as well as governance structures, budget allocations, workforce capacity, access to treatment, affordability and broader rights-based reforms.
Stakeholders back initiative
The launch brought together government officials, policymakers, researchers, civil society organisations, development partners, media practitioners and representatives of the creative industry.
Among the organisations supporting the initiative are Lagos Mind, Mind Over Matters NG, Stilt NG, Our Beta Life, the Mental Health Transformation Organisation (MHT) and Hevolve Foundation.
Mental health advocate and musician Hadiza Blell-Olo, popularly known as Di’ja, urged public figures to move beyond raising awareness by supporting partnerships that strengthen mental health reforms, noting that the tracker provides a framework for improving policy accountability.
Also speaking, the National Mental Health Coordinator at the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Tunde Ojo, said independent accountability mechanisms can help strengthen implementation and improve service delivery.
NMH said the platform is open to policymakers, practitioners, researchers and members of the public, who can submit verified implementation updates and feedback to improve transparency and support mental health reforms across the country.
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