FG spends N375b on malaria fight annually, says Lambo

Not less than N375billion is being spent by the federal government annually to fight the malaria scourge in Nigeria.

A former Minister of Health, Professor Eyitayo Lambo, made the disclosure in Abuja, during the re-launching of the mosquito control and liquid waste management programme organized by the ANDELSTA group in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Environment. The programme was first launched in 2009 by the government.

Professor Lambo, explained that the federal government, every year, budgets the whopping amount to tackle the malaria scourge through the provision of the various necessary malaria drugs and vaccines.

The former health minister who was represented by his former Special Adviser while in office, Rev. Olajide Olowodola, noted that the malaria pandemic has cost the nation so much in terms of material and human resources, stressing that the amount being spent on the scourge annually is what ought to have been channeled to other productive areas if only attention has been focussed more on vector control in the past.

He pointedly made it clear that vector control is the only answer to the effective fight against malaria in the country.

The Minister of Environment, Alhaji Ibrahim Usman Jubrin, in his address at the event, explained that the re-launched programme is in recognition of the importance of preventive healthcare measures to the control and management of the environmental health challenges which has significant direct and indirect economic consequences.

The programme, the Minister pointed out, is expected to eliminate the breeding spaces of mosquitoes and eradicate mosquitoes in our environment, thereby preventing or reducing the incidences of malaria parasite which is a major cause of infant mortality and morbidity, which has direct and indirect economic consequences.

The present administration, he said, views the eradication of mosquito vectors as of great importance with an appeal to the various stakeholders at the federal, states and local government levels to be fully involved in the programme.

In his address, the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of ANDELSTA, Engr Fintan Ibeshi expressed the optimism that the programme will change the face of sanitation practice in Nigeria to the benefit of all.

While saying that ANDELSTA recognized that the success in the war against mosquito, access to clean water and sanitation for all can not be achieved by the activities of the public sector alone without the involvement of the private sector.

The relaunching of the programme, Ibeshi pointed out, is more of a change of attitude and behaviour towards a dirty environment which mostly constitute the habitat for mosquitoes