The Ministry of Health has submitted a 2022 budget proposal to the Senate to borrow N82 billion ($200 million) to buy mosquito nets.
The proposal is captured in the ministry’s Malaria Programme, according to its Permanent Secretary, Mahmuda Mamman, who defended it before the Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Loans on Tuesday, October 26, 2021.
The official said the fund would be used to medically fight malaria in 13 states.
The coverage is expected to spread across 3,536 primary health care centres in 208 local government councils.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib, further clarified to the committee that the loan covers the importation and local production of mosquito nets.
The Senate Committee expressed strong reservations about the proposal, dismissing it as another money-making scheme that will only benefit creditors.
“Don’t we have local manufacturers of mosquitoes nets and malaria drugs in Nigeria to patronise with the loan?” Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe queried the officials.
Nigeria recorded the highest number of malaria cases (27%), and highest number of malaria deaths (23%) in the world in 2019, according to a World Health Organisation (WHO) report.
