NIGERIA: US, Britain to provide $140 million in aid

The United States and Britain plan to provide Nigeria with assistance worth US $140 million over a six-year period aimed at
cutting the infection rate of the HIV virus by 25 percent by 2008, officials said on Friday.

An agreement covering the assistance programme, targeted at those aged between 15 and 24 years, was signed on Thursday by the US ambassador Howard Jeter, the British high commissioner Philip Thomas, and a senior official of Nigeria's National Planning Commission, Charles Njoku, a senior health official told PlusNews.

"The signing of the agreement was part of the activities that marked the visit to Nigeria of the British minister for Africa, Baroness Valerie Amos," the official said.

An official statement quoted Baroness Amos as saying the programme was expected to "help develop the other elements of prevention and care that are necessary for a comprehensive response (to HIV/AIDS), and will provide support to some of the three million Nigerians already infected".

The programme will be run by Nigeria's National Committee on AIDS and the National Population Commission, the statement said.

Nigeria currently has an HIV/AIDS-prevalence rate of 5.8 percent. But with a population of over 120 million and three million infected persons, it has the highest number of infected people of any one country in Africa.

Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]