U.S. agency spends $50m on neglected diseases in Nigeria

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) said it had spent about $50 million to its flagship ENVISION Project for the control and elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) in Nigeria since 2011.

The Resident Programme Advisor for Research Triangle Institute (RTI) International, Mr. Ben Nwobi, who spoke in an interview with journalists at the “End of Nigeria ENVSION Project Review Meeting” in Ikom, Cross River State, at the weekend, said that the RTI worked on the USAID ENVISION project in 19 countries and would come to an end globally on September 30, 2019.

Nwobi, who said the USAID had awarded a follow-on project to RTI called Act to End NTD|EAST, which is in fulfilment of the agency’s commitment, promised there would not be an interruption of the support for the elimination of NTD diseases globally.

He stated that USAID, under its ENVISION Project, supported 10 states in Nigeria, namely Plateau, Nasarawa, Ebonyi, Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Abia, Edo, Delta states (all managed by the Carter Centre, Nigeria) and Cross River State supported through RTI.

“In the past four years, we have also demonstrated this success in seven out of the 10 local councils endemic for lymphatic filariasis in Cross River State.

“In other words, if we jointly push further with additional resources, we will take lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis out of Cross River State and the people will be better for it,” he said.