As the world marks the 2026 World Tuberculosis Day, the World Health Organisation, W.H.O has warned that if funds and commodities for tuberculosis are not provided by the Niger State government, there would be a serious crisis by June of this year
WHO National Professional Officer, TB, North Central Zone, Hananiya Dauda, who gave the position to commemorate the 2026 World Tuberculosis Day in Minna, said only 8% out of the 18% of funds expected have been accessed.
According to Dauda, “if the State Government does not provide funds by mid this year, we might have a serious testing gap, adding that, they may not have commodities in the state if the State Government fails to bring or provide funds for drugs and for testing”.
Commissioner for Health, Murtala Baga, represented by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Abdullahi Im, stated that the major existing challenge threatening the progress towards the 2030 elimination target is a reduction in international donor funding from 2025 onwards.
Bagana, however, assured that the State Government, through the TB and Leprosy Control Programme, is poised to move to a higher level to ensure the elimination of TB disease by the year 2030.
According to him, Niger state’s data at 2025 has 127,410 total presumptive and 126,228 presumptive tested.
He added that the total number of TB cases identified are 14,908, out of which 8,629 were totally cured with the aid of diagnostic tools, which include Genexpert Machine, Trunat Machine, T LAMP, and PDX Machine.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
