The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved the sum of N8.6 billion for the construction of a vaccine laboratory, test kits for HIV/AIDS and also the procurement of medical equipment.
This was disclosed by the Health Minister, Dr Osagie Ehanire on Wednesday in Abuja after the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House in Abuja.
The Health Minister said the breakdown of the FEC’s approvals includes, N3.06 billion for the construction of vaccine laboratory, N1.2 billion for laboratory equipment and N4.3 billion for the procurement of HIV/AIDS and Syphilis test kits.
“The Ministry of Health presented three memos, which were all approved. One of them was for the procurement of test kits for HIV/AIDS.
“As you all know, Nigeria has succeeded in driving down the HIV prevalence from 3 per cent to 1.3 per cent,” he added.
He revealed that FG was conducting more tests particularly of mothers who may be carrying HIV that could be passed on to their unborn children.
“That’s sort of called the prevention of mother to child transmission and also without routine tests that will be done on people who may have absolutely no symptom at all, but are carrying HIV virus.
“So, these test kits we are procuring and we’re also including those test kits that can also detect syphilis.
“Syphilis as you all know is another sexually transmitted disease. So, this memo was presented today and passed by the Council,” said the minister.
He further stated that the Council approved two other memos from the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC). One of the memos, he said, was for equipment procurement in six laboratories in Nigeria and also the upgrade of existing NAFDAC laboratories.
