A prominent civil society organisation, the Health Reform Initiative Nigeria (He-RIN), has vehemently rejected a recent health agreement signed by the Federal Ministry of Health with SNG Health. He-RIN labels the pact as self-serving, deceptive, and a deliberate attempt to undermine existing local manufacturers of mosquito nets. The organisation urges President Bola Tinubu to intervene, citing grave concerns about corruption and its potential impact on Nigeria’s severe malaria burden.
He-RIN’s condemnation targets the partnership between Vestergaard and Harvestfield, which led to the formation of SNG Health for the supply of mosquito nets across Nigeria. In a joint statement, the group’s Executive Director, Sunday Tobi, and Secretary, Abdul Musa, asserted that this arrangement merely perpetuates the controversial activities of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), which they claim previously dominated the sector under questionable circumstances. They allege that SNG Health was incubated by UNOPS at the behest of the Federal Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the World Bank Nigeria.
Nigeria currently bears the world’s heaviest malaria burden, a critical context highlighted by He-RIN. According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) World Malaria Report, Nigeria accounts for approximately 27% of global malaria cases and 31% of malaria-related deaths, with an estimated 184,000 fatalities annually. The majority of these deaths occur among children under five and pregnant women, underscoring the urgent need for effective, transparent interventions.
Despite this grim reality and substantial public spending, He-RIN points to persistent policy inconsistencies and an excessive reliance on imported mosquito nets. Data from the Budget Office of the Federation indicate that Nigeria’s health sector consistently receives only 4-6% of the national budget, significantly below the 15% Abuja Declaration benchmark. Furthermore, over N1.5 billion was reportedly deployed for malaria control interventions between 2015 and 2023, primarily for procurement and distribution of nets, yet the nation continues to struggle.
The civil society group further alleges that the Ministry of Health deliberately undermined local manufacturers of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, tracing Nigeria’s persistent malaria crisis to collusion with UNOPS years before the current administration. He-RIN recalled that the Federal Government had concluded arrangements for local net manufacturing following a competitive bidding process in 2022. However, this process was abruptly halted at the instance of UNOPS shortly after President Tinubu assumed office, leaving the sector without meaningful investment.
He-RIN expressed deep concern regarding the Honourable Minister of Health, alleging a clear conflict of interest. The organisation claims the Minister previously aligned with Vestergaard and has since promoted policies favouring personal and commercial interests, systematically disadvantaging Nigerian-owned manufacturers. These actions, He-RIN stated, included encouraging UNOPS to exclude local producers and stalling tenders for World Bank-borrowed funds, creating a vacuum for SNG Health to emerge as a preferred supplier.
The organisation argues that sidelining local manufacturers has dire economic consequences, contradicting President Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope Agenda” which champions local production for a resilient health system. He-RIN estimates that if local manufacturers had secured a proposed $100 million contract for nets, millions of direct and indirect jobs could have been created, foreign exchange conserved, and malaria-related deaths significantly reduced. Instead, SNG Health now competes in the same market, allegedly enjoying preferential treatment that distorts competition and threatens local industry.
He-RIN also challenges the Ministry’s approach to net deployment, accusing it of pushing for the award of over 25 million Global Fund-supported LLINs to a narrow group of favoured companies without adequate epidemiological justification. The group asserts that Nigeria’s diverse mosquito species and resistance patterns across regions necessitate different LLIN technologies, making a single-net approach scientifically unsound and potentially driven by corruption rather than public health outcomes.
The civil society body urges President Tinubu to launch an urgent investigation into the SNG Health arrangement and demand public accountability for the $100 million initiative originally intended for local manufacturing. He-RIN maintains that the Ministry of Health appears to prioritise profit-driven deals over the health and lives of Nigerians, while the country tragically continues to lose hundreds of thousands of lives to malaria annually.
