Nigeria had launched a national programme but had yet to secure the financial resources to reach the programme targets within each state. The costing and investment case work highlighted that investing in their hepatitis C programme now could yield savings close to $1.6 billion USD by 2030, with a more aggressive elimination efforts achieving the most rapid and highest cost benefit in later years, despite the need for more investment at the start, mainly due to the significant number of new infections prevented.
Already in Nigeria, civil society has been using it to call for action at the national and state level. The national program has appointed state managers to ensure that hepatitis remains on the state’s health agenda. Importantly, in 2020, Nasarawa State in Nigeria committed to a five-year elimination target and began to allocate funding for the cause.
Moving forward WHA is continuing to work with our members on an advocating for greater domestic financing and further details on this project can be found here.