Malaria: Remi Tinubu Seeks Domestic Funding As Nigerians Groan Under Treatment Costs

By Jonathan Nda-Isaiah, Abuja, Nnamdi Mbawike, Enugu, Abdullahi Olesin, Ilorin, AZA MSUE, Kaduna,

First lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, has called for increased domestic financing and sustained collaboration to strengthen efforts aimed at ending malaria.

In her message to mark World Malaria Day yesterday, Mrs. Tinubu said the fight against malaria required greater investment and innovative solutions to address challenges such as drug resistance and unequal access to healthcare.

She noted that the 2026 theme, “United Against Malaria,” highlighted the urgent need for collective action.

According to her, prevention efforts must be strengthened while life-saving interventions should be supported to ensure wider access to malaria prevention and treatment materials.

She said special attention should be given to vulnerable communities to ensure they are not left behind in the campaign against the disease.

“Today, on World Malaria Day, we reaffirmed our commitment to ending malaria and protecting the health of every individual,” she said.

Meanwhile, reports from our correspondents indicate that Nigerians are getting increasingly uneasy over the rising costs of malaria treatment.

In Enugu,  investigations revealed that the prices of popular anti-malaria drugs—Coartem, Lonart and  Amatem have increased by 35 to 40 percent.

A patent medicine dealer at Kenyatta road, Mr Obiinna Ibekwe, attributed the  increment to bad policies of the government at various levels including undeserved taxation.

A senior official at Malaria Reduction Network(MRN) based in Enugu, Mrs Ogbonnia Chineye, said the organisation has been working with  foreign donors to make anti-malaria drugs affordable.

State chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association, Enugu State branch, Dr Sunny Okafor, said some horizontal services had been integrated into the health system at the level of the  ministries.

He added that there was also collaboration with some donor agencies, and some of them were proving malaria testing kits to avoid abuse, among other measures.

In Ilorin, Kwara State, common drugs for the treatment of malaria are  beyond the reach of the common man.

LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that a patient  needs between N2,000 and N5,000 to purchase common malaria drugs in patent medicine stores and pharmacies.

A pharmacist, Kale Ayo said the prices of malaria drugs were increasing, and queried how people with heavy loads of domestic commitments would have the money to buy malaria drugs.

He hinted that people don’t patronise  pharmacies for malaria drugs as before because of the hike in the cost.

Ayo said a patient needs a minimum of N2,000 to buy malaria drugs unlike in the past when such drugs were obtained with N400.

In Kaduna, patients have lamented the soaring prices of anti-malaria drugs as they called on government to subsidise them to effectively tackle the increasing cases of malaria.

Our correspondent who visited some pharmacies in Sabon Tasha and Television Garage, in Kaduna discovered that Coartem 80/460 is sold at N7, 000, Amatem Forte Soft Gel at N2,800, while N2,700. Lonart-DS is N3,000.

It further was discovered that the cheapest anti -malaria drug, Primmemal QS, was sold at N800.

A pharmacist operating in Sabon Tasha, Livinus Samson, said there was increase in the prices of drugs, not only anti-malaria.

“Last year Coartem was sold at N5,500 but today is being sold at N7,000. We are not producing these drugs, we only selling them to patients”

A patent medicine vendor, Harry Onoja, said due to the high prices they only buy cheap drugs.

“As drugs are expensive now, some of us small medicine vendors only buy cheap ones for patients to afford. We don’t know whether the drugs are of quality or not because we are not producing them. Only NAFDAC can know whether drugs are genuine or not,” he stated.

A patient, James Ode, pleaded with the government to look into the soaring prices for the common people to survive.

“Government must do urgent something about this. Even now how many can afford to buy drugs. Anti-malaria drugs are going higher in prices and this is a common health problem people face everyday,” he said.