The Federal Government has urged states to strengthen domestic funding for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), to enable the nation unlock seven million dollars in external funding in 2027.

The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, made the call at the 2026 Annual High-Level Advocacy Meeting on NTDs in Abuja.

The meeting has “Translating Commitments into Budgetary Action”, as theme.

Salako, represented by the Director of Public Health in the ministry, Dr Charles Nzelu, said the Reaching the Last Mile Fund offered Nigeria an opportunity to mobilise additional resources to accelerate disease elimination.

“A particularly important opportunity before us is the Reaching the Last Mile Fund.

“Under this financing arrangement, Nigeria is required to mobilise one million dollars in domestic resources to unlock approximately seven million dollars from the Reaching the Last Mile Fund for the National NTD Programme in 2027,” he said.

He said the opportunity should be used to strengthen government ownership of NTD programmes and accelerate progress towards elimination targets.

Salako said Nigeria had recorded progress through the collective efforts of federal and state governments, health workers, communities and development partners.

However, he said sustaining the gains would increasingly depend on the government’s ability to take greater responsibility for financing NTD interventions.

He said some states had established dedicated budget lines for NTDs in their health budgets but emphasised the need to ensure adequate allocations and timely releases.

“A budget line without adequate allocation cannot deliver interventions.

“An allocation without release cannot reach communities and released funds must be effectively utilised to produce measurable public health results,” he said.

The minister urged state commissioners for health to ensure that NTDs were reflected in their states’ health priorities, annual operational plans and budgets.

He also called on states that had yet to establish dedicated budget lines to do so during the ongoing 2027 planning and budgeting cycle.

Salako said the federal government would strengthen domestic financing and coordination while ensuring that available resources were directed towards interventions with the greatest public health impact.

He said the meeting’s resolutions should be reflected in the 2027 Annual Operational Plans and budgets, with allocations translated into actual releases and measurable improvements in affected communities.

Earlier, the National Coordinator for NTDs in Nigeria, Dr Adebayo Peters, said the meeting was organised to explore ways of mobilising domestic resources for the programme.

Peters said Nigeria was working towards the World Health Organization’s 2030 target for eliminating NTDs.

He identified trachoma, lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis among the diseases for which the country had made significant progress.

“We have been able to do some significant work in some of these diseases like trachoma, in lymphatic filariasis and in onchocerciasis, to ensure that so many persons are weaned out of these diseases,” he said.

Peters attributed the progress to contributions from government and implementing partners, adding that increased domestic commitment was necessary to sustain the achievements.

He said the programme was seeking to strengthen funding at both federal and state levels by engaging commissioners for health and their representatives.

Also speaking, the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Health Services, Rep. Amos Magaji, called for improved budgetary allocations and timely releases to support health interventions.

Magaji said poor budget releases remained a challenge, emphasising the need to prioritise NTDs and ensure that funds allocated for the diseases were made available for implementation.

He also called for the inclusion of NTD services in the National Health Insurance programme to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure, particularly among vulnerable communities.

The lawmaker said strengthening primary healthcare was essential to tackling NTDs and other diseases at the community level.

“Many of these diseases that we are talking about here today, NTDs, HIV, tuberculosis, are diseases that can be handled at the primary level,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day meeting seeks to secure sustained domestic funding for NTDs through dedicated budget lines in the 2027 health budgets of federal and state ministries of health.

It also aims to strengthen expenditure monitoring, develop state-specific action plans and improve coordination between federal and state ministries of health for the implementation of domestically and donor-funded interventions. (NAN)

Edited by Abiemwense Moru