Role of private sector in Malaria control

Nigeria’s notorious health record is no longer news. For decades now, its basic health care system had been in disarray as hospitals and clinics often lack the competence and medication to treat even common diseases-such as malaria- and getting the right diagnosis for ailments has been a constant challenge-partly for lack of equipment and expertise […]

Nigeria’s notorious health record is no longer news. For decades now, its basic health care system had been in disarray as hospitals and clinics often lack the competence and medication to treat even common diseases-such as malaria- and getting the right diagnosis for ailments has been a constant challenge-partly for lack of equipment and expertise and hundreds are victims of improper diagnosis which experts argue could be more dangerous than the disease.
The World Bank estimates about $4.5 billion is required to make quality health services accessible to Nigeria.
In a report by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) titled: “Health in Africa Initiative: Private Health Market Studies, Nigeria,” it estimated the bankable financing need for Primary Health Institutions (PHIs) alone at $1.5 billion.
Malaria, which is a disease often associated with poor sanitary conditions, has been a huge concern in Nigeria as well as in the Sub-saharan Africa as it is estimated that 627,000 malaria deaths occurred globally in 2012 with 90 percent of these deaths occuring in sub-Saharan Africa.
The annual financial cost of malaria in Nigeria is estimated at about N132 billion in forms of treatment costs, prevention and loss of man-hours, according to the Federal Ministry of Health.
Although recent interventions in increased comprehensive prevention efforts was said to have saved about 3.3 million lives from the cold hands of malaria, its threats are ever-increasing particularly in Nigeria.
Coordinator of the National Malaria Control, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Nnenna Ezeigwe, recently said the country needed about $700 million (about N112 billion) within the next three years to eradicate malaria.
Economically, malaria scourge is said to have retarded economic development by constituting a huge epidemiologic burden in the country, according to government sources.
The disease is allegedly responsible for 60 percent outpatient visits to health facilities, 30 percent childhood death while 25 percent of death in children under one year and 11 percent maternal death.
Experts say public funds alone cannot fix the health sector except there are effective partnerships with the private sector. However, Access Bank has been one of the leading lights in efforts at salvaging the Nigerian health sector in recent times.
Speaking about one of its major sponsorship contributions to the 2014 GBCHealth/CAMA Annual Technical Forum themed: “Capitalising on Competences: Partnering to Eliminate Malaria and Accelerate Impact on Maternal and Child Health,” Group Managing Director/Chief Executive of the bank, Mr. Herbert Wigwe justified the need for big corporations to lend a helping hand in the fight against the disease in the society.
According to him: “The fight against malaria is one that all should embrace, because a healthy society is beneficial to all.  The decision to partner GBC-Health on this issue was not a difficult one. The bank is very passionate about its corporate social responsibility. Thus we cannot close our doors to offers that aim to uplift the wellbeing of our host communities and Nigeria at large.”
The bank had recently led efforts at attracting the needed financing from international partners towards fixing the system, spear-heading an initial campaign “gift from Africa” in 2010 “ where it led several private sector institutions including Dangote to raise about $5 million to support the fight against HIV,  tuberculosis and malaria.
Wigwe said: “Health financing in itself is critical,  to involving  the private sector but also government support is also critical but there are other things that are just as critical to ensure we fight this issue of disease and health and all of that which is around partnerships and the mode of implementation in terms of this campaign to make Africa a much better place.”
The Access Bank boss also noted that all banking and investment efforts would actually be meaningless if the health of the people to whom products and services were being targeted at is in danger, stressing it is the responsibility of the banking industry to help restore the health system.
Also, Head, Development Banking, Access Bank, Mr. Oluwatoyin Idowu said: “We believe in strong corporate social responsibility and being one of the leading banks in the country we believe that we need to give back to the community and this is one of the things that we have been doing under our CSR. We have done a couple of things in the past and we will continue to do it. We partner with them (GBC Health) to ensure that the subject of discourse, which is eradication of malaria and maternal and child mortality is addressed.”
Idowu said the bank accords privilege to the health care sector “because we believe that a healthy society will help create more wealth and enhance the development of the nation.”
The bank recently partnered Friends Africa, a pan-African non-governmental organisation working to mobilise strategic political and financial support for the fight against HIV/AIDS on the 2nd edition of the World AIDS Day tagged “Superstars Play for Life,” where a novelty football match was designed to create awareness about the scourge in Lagos.
According to Idowu:”Basically, we engage in partnerships because we believe so  much in the subject of discourse-malaria and in terms of financing, we partner with them because we believe that this will scale up the line of discussion, so that at the end of the day various participants at this forum will be able to go home with something.”