Stakeholders have expressed worries over poor budgetary allocation for funding HIV in Kogi State.
Speaking at a press conference to mark 2017 World AIDS Day, the Kogi State Coordinator, Civil Society on HIV in Nigeria (CiSHAN), Hamza Aliyu said by 2015 statistics one out of every thirty persons living in Kogi State are infected with HIV/AIDs.
Hamza posited that out of an estimated 100,000 persons are living with HIV in Kogi State, only 4% know their status.
“In 2015, Kogi State was ranked 15th in Nigeria with a prevalence rate of 3.3%, which was above the National Prevalence of 3%. With a population of over 3.3 million, this translates to an estimated 100,000 Persons Living with HIV in the State. This means that 1 in every 30 Kogi citizen is infected with HIV. Of this number, only slightly more than 14,000 (14%) are currently on Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART). The untreated persons provide the fuel for the transmission of the virus.
“This is more worrisome taking into consideration that Kogi State is a Transit Corridor, bordering about 9 states (the highest in the Nation), and the state is surrounded by high burden states like Benue, FCT, Nassarawa, Enugu. Only 4% of Kogi citizens know their HIV status as against the 90% recommended by the UN.
“The situation is far worse in Kogi State. More than 95% of HIV intervention funding is donor dependent. This is clearly is not sustainable and is evident now that the International Donors are leaving due to domestic and global financial constraints.
“A look at the 2017 Budget for the State shows that funding for HIV for both the Kogi State Agency for the Control of AIDS (KOSACA) and the State AIDS and STI Control Programme (SASCP) is a paltry N5.5 million, this is contrasted by the fact that the same Government has Budget a whooping N24 Billion (more than 4,300%) for Government House Administration. We are baffled that this is coming from a government that promised in its NEW DIRECTION AGENDA document, to reduce the HIV prevalence of the State by 75%.
“The Kogi State Government, through the Nigerian Government, signed on to the 90-90-90 and Test and Treat policies of the UNAIDS in the struggle at eliminating HIV by 2030. One of the factors identified in achieving this objective is sustainable local funding. It is very disturbing that despite these appalling facts above, there has been no significant budget by the state government for HIV activities in the state, despite that fact that the State HIV intervention activities are almost 100% donor driven and many of the donors are winding-down their projects in the state.
“Kaduna, Benue and Lagos State, all APC states, are leading the way in funding HIV and putting more of their people on the life saving drugs. Kogi State on the other hand has not procured a single ARV or test-kit with its funds!,” he said.
CiSHAN demanded that immediate action be taken to pay the salaries of people living with HIV (PLHIV) working for Government and who have been “cleared”.
Also, they called for immediate action to increase the budgetary allocation to HIV activities to 1% of the Budget as agreed to by the Nigerian Government and abolish of all user fees in Kogi State Government-owned HIV treatment facilities in line with the NACA directive.
