By Paul Effiong, Abuja
House of Representatives has opened an investigative hearing into the management of over $1.8 billion and $2.8 billion grants received by Nigeria from Global Fund and the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, between 2021 and 2025.
Declaring the hearing open at the National Assembly in Abuja yesterday, Chairman of the House Committee on Infectious Diseases, Amobi Ogah informed that the investigation became necessary to determine how the huge sums received had been utilised and to ensure transparency and accountability in their management.
AljazirahNigeria gathered that the funds were meant for the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, as well as strengthening the country’s health system.
The chairman informed that Nigerians deserve to know whether the funds are making real difference in reducing the burden of infectious diseases within and across the country, even as he insisted on knowing the procedures for sharing the grants.
Ogah recalled that the House under the leadership of Speaker Tajudeen Abbas had, during plenary on October 21, 2025, mandated the then Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Control, ATM, to urgently investigate issues surrounding the money, who received them along with modalities for its distribution.
The committe commended Speaker Abbas and the leadership of the 10th House for renaming and expanding the committee’s mandate to include all infectious diseases, in recognition of the growing public health challenges currently being faced in Nigeria.
According to him, “Nigeria continues to be battered by the ill effects of a greater burden of HIV, Tuberculosis, Malaria and other numerous infectious diseases.”
Lamenting the preventable health condition in the country, the lawmaker observed that “it appears that while budgetary allocations and donor funds are mobilised for response against these health challenges, there is no reprieve in sight, as Nigerians are ravaged daily.”
The committee emphasised that the probe would uncover how grants were spent, particularly as about 90 percent of intervention funds for these diseases came from international partners.
It also noted that the 10th National Assembly would no longer tolerate a situation where Nigeria remains a “spectator” in the management of funds meant for its citizens, saying all grants or assistance being given to Nigeria without good management is unacceptable.
Ogah equally directed the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the Country Coordinating Mechanism CCM, to ensure that all principal recipients and implementing partners submit their implementation plans for approval by the National Assembly before funds are released.
It also informed of the amendment of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, NACA, Establishment Bill to transform it into a multi-sectoral agency to be known as the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, NACATAM.
The move, lawmakers said, is to make the agency work in reality with current trends as obtained in the civilised world.
The committee said the probe would help determine the level of transparency and accountability in the use of donor funds since 2021.
