Korede Abdullah 
Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Ali Pate
ABUJA, Nigeria – Nigeria’s leading public health stakeholders have called for urgent domestic financing reforms to sustain decades of progress against HIV, tuberculosis, malaria and other major diseases amid declining global donor support.
The appeal came on Tuesday during APIN Public Health Initiatives’ 25th anniversary symposium in Abuja, where policymakers and health experts warned that shrinking international funding could undermine hard-won health gains.
Former Minister of Health and Ambassador-designate to Canada, Isaac Adewole, said global health interventions have delivered significant improvements through expanded immunisation, maternal and child healthcare, HIV treatment access, tuberculosis control and malaria programmes.
He noted that Nigeria has vaccinated nearly 17 million girls against cervical cancer through the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine initiative.
However, Adewole warned that climate change, pandemics, antimicrobial resistance, economic instability and food insecurity now pose fresh threats to public health outcomes.
“Aid cuts are no longer limited to the United States as several European countries have also reduced support,” he said.
The symposium, themed “Sustaining Health Gains Amid Global Uncertainty: Evidence-Based Pathways to Future Impact,” focused on strategies for building resilient health systems through stronger domestic investment and partnerships.
APIN Chief Executive Officer, Prosper Okonkwo, expressed confidence that Nigeria can adapt to the changing funding landscape.
“As we look to the future, we do so with great enthusiasm and expectation, even as the global health funding landscape continues to shift in ways that few of us would have predicted a few years ago,” he said.
Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, joined other stakeholders in advocating sustainable financing mechanisms to protect public health achievements and ensure long-term healthcare resilience.
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Oluwatobi Adu 
Otamere Gladness 
Edino Chubiyo Cornelius