Nigeria is a key country for achieving global malaria elimination goals. It is also the economic hub of the African continent, with a private sector that is increasingly investing and engaging in activities to improve the health of its workforce and the surrounding communities within which it operates.

While there has been a significant decline in malaria deaths globally over the past decade, a significant proportion of the remaining burden of malaria lies in Nigeria. There are 53 million cases of malaria in Nigeria and 81,640 deaths from malaria i.e. nine deaths per hour. Nigeria accounts for 25% of the global malaria cases and 19% of global malaria deaths. The disease is a major cause of school absenteeism and reduced workforce productivity. Targets for reducing malaria cases and deaths will not be reached unless Nigeria makes considerable progress in preventing the disease.

The Nigerian government, through the National Malaria Elimination Program (NMEP), has developed an ambitious agenda to move the country to a state of pre-elimination by 2020.

In order for this goal to be realized, there needs to be an “all hands on deck” approach, with all sectors, including the private sector, coordinated in their response to malaria control. Recognizing the importance of Nigeria to both malaria goals and for the potential for great private sector impact, in 2015 CAMA formalized a dedicated Nigeria workstream to work with the NMEP to further engage the country’s private sector in malaria efforts.

As the whole world marches towards malaria elimination, we should not only pray, but commit resources and other efforts to ensure that we are not left behind…The contribution of the Private Sector is acknowledged and highly valued, but we need to be more coordinated and align with national priorities to fast track progress.Dr. Nnenna Ezeigwe, Former National Coordinator, NMEP

Partners

Government: CAMA’s work in Nigeria is done in close collaboration to the National Malaria Elimination Program (NMEP). With the NMEP’s guidance, CAMA works to further engage the country’s private sector in malaria efforts that are complimentary to the National Malaria Strategic Plan.

Private Sector: CAMA’s private sector partners in Nigeria include the following companies: Access Bank Plc, Bayer, Chevron, Dangote Foundation, Etisalat Nigeria, ExxonMobil, Heineken, Lafarge, Nigerian Breweries, Shell, Sumitomo Chemical, Syngenta, and Wapic Insurance Plc.

Development Partners & Technical Advisors: CAMA receives technical advice from FHI360 and Malaria Consortium in Nigeria.

Resources

Find Nigeria-specific information on our Resources page here, including the National Malaria Strategic Plan for 2014-2020.

Testimonials

“CAMA allows us to profile our workplace program before peers and other partners, which we rarely get to do otherwise.” – Dr. Richard Ajayi, Company Medical Advisor, Nigerian Breweries Plc.

“As a result of the 2014 CAMA Forum in Abuja, we realized that we could do more with Malaria in Pregnancy, so we introduced this intervention into our community programs.” – Mr. Sunday Okegbemiro, Coordinator, Corporate Responsibility & National Affairs, Nigeria, Chevron

“There for a long time existed a disconnect, between the public systems and the private systems, where everybody was doing everything by themselves individually, in pockets which led to inefficiencies and wasted resources. But, partnership and coming together has brought in to place increased efficiency in not only utilization of resources, but harmonizing what everyone is doing without duplication. For me, this is the correct step in the right direction that will ensure that our targets and goals are achieved.” – Dr. Barnabas Bwambok, Vestergaard Frandsen