As part of measures to mitigate spread of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), the Federal Government has approved the inclusion of Wondfo HIV I and II rapid test kits for the virus in the country.

As stated, the newly approved test kits could be used as a confirmatory test because of its high specification of 99.4 percent and that the result met the requirements set for kits to be included for treatment. 

The National Coordinator, National AIDS/STI Control Programme (NASCP), Dr Akudo Ikpeazu, said that the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) approved the conduct of the laboratory performance evaluation of Wondfo HIV I and II rapid test kit in 2019. 

Speaking while presenting the evaluation report on the kit, on Tuesday in Abuja, explained that the test kits were subjected to thorough clinical trials and received various certifications before being approved by the apex government. 

“The result of the evaluation which was conducted at the reference testing laboratory Public Health in Vitro Diagnostic Laboratory, Lagos showed that Wondfo rapid test kit sensitivity, was 99.5 percent and its specificity was 99.4 percent. 

“The rapid test kit has an accuracy of 99.4 percent with positive and negative predictive values of the kit to the Gold Standard as 99.3 percent and 99.5 percent respectively.  These results met the requirements for the kit to be included in the first-line screening test of the HIV testing algorithm in Nigeria,” she explained. 

She disclosed that Nigeria had conducted some rounds of evaluation of HIV rapid test kits,  using the World Health Organisation(WHO) guidelines for appropriate evaluation of HIV testing technologies in Africa, where three phases of the evaluation were recommended. 

She noted that these phases were, laboratory-based, field-based, and continuous monitoring of the performance of the algorithm and that the National HIV testing algorithms were developed from these rounds of evaluation conducted and all the test kits were antibody-based kits. 

“HIV testing is the fulcrum of any HIV programme as it establishes the individual’s HIV status which then determines the subsequent package of prevention or treatment services that will benefit that individual. 

“A person who tests negative is counseled on how to stay negative, while a person that tests positive is immediately linked to Anti-Retroviral Therapy(ART) services and so the importance of providing accurate and reliable diagnosis devoid of false negatives or false positives results cannot be overemphasized,” she explained. 

In his speech, the Director-General, National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) Dr. Gambo Aliyu, appreciated the national evaluation team for the successful completion of the process, adding that the agency was using all strategy available to increase hematocrit (HCT) uptake in the country.

“Provider Initiative HCT strategy is being introduced to most government-funded hospitals to ensure that all patients that come into the health facility have access to HCT services at no cost,” he said. 

Aliyu noted that there was need for more Nigerians to be tested for HIV in the country, and be placed on treatment immediately, noting that testing remained the gateway for HIV treatment and care services. 

“We have to address the gap between the target and where we are as a nation. We are at 73 percent in our testing and we still need to do more,” Aliyu said.

For many years economists, financial advisors and public analysts have often pontificated that part of our problems in being unable to arrest the ever increasing fuel prices was our sustained failure In fixing our aging refineries.

The general belief is that once we refine locally, petrol price will automatically tumble and cascade downwards!!

By serving in two federal governments, some informations I gathered independently and official convinced me long ago that continued efforts in trying to fix those completely depreciated and structurally aged contraptions was a total and unnecessary drain on our economy and a conduit pipe for siphoning scarce resources.

Somewhere along the line albeit belatedly, this obvious facts became accepted by the powers that be and the circus of incessant “turn around maintenance” was stopped.

Sadly activists still pressure governments to continue to pursue this unrewarding project in the strange and bewildering belief that this is the panacea for halting fuel price increases.

Fallacy upon fallacy, all is fallacy!
The newest of our 4 refineries is over 40years old. Most of them have actually become unserviceable because the parent companies who made them are out of business or have actually discontinued the models more than 3 decades ago.

I remember one incidence when I was in government and government decided to bypass middle men and instead sought the assistance of the actual manufacturers. After paying agreed sum quoted for repairs in an escrow account abroad to convince the manufacturers of government’s commitment, the said sum was returned by the company after several months claiming that they cannot do effective repair of their own machines because they have become so obsolete that they may have to resurrect some of their dead engineers to bring the refinery back to life.

It is heart warming to state that the Nigerian engineers in that refinery came together to fix it at that time. Now that Dangote, Samad Rabiu and some others are coming up with new refineries, the hopes of Nigerians including me, that we will soon witness a low pricing regime for petrol has been rekindled.

That was up till yesterday when I listened to Mustafa Chike Obi, on Arise TV. The chairman of Diamond bank and former MD of Amcon , argued correctly that local refining of crude oil does not necessarily guarantee cheaper petrol prices. He cited the astronomically high prices of cement in Nigeria despite the fact that all the component raw materials for cement production are sourced locally. He also gave a few other similar cases to buttress his point.

For me another classic case is that of locally produced Rice. Today at Daleko market in Lagos, Nigerian Rice spld for N23,500 while Cotonou rice, (imported) sold for N26,000. So what is the difference? And how has local production with all the government incentives paid the masses?

As it is for rice, so it is for Textile.
Cotton is grown here, lint and yarn are produced locally. Yet the influence of the locally fabricated economic Demon still make it impossible for Textile millers to prosper without government protection.

I concur with Chike Obi that when we finally have Dangote Petrol, we shall still pay through our noses!! And there will be more than enough justifiable reason for the high price.
So what is the way out???
It’s tough options all the way.
At N160 per liter, government still subsidises petrol with more than N50 per liter. This is because landing cost today is close to N220 per liter, excluding taxes.

At the previous price of N148 per liter, true subsidy is not less than N70 per liter.
If we consume 50m liters per day,nationally, (NNPC figure is 60m) then subsidy per day is N3.6B. That works out to be N1.3 Trillion a year or about 13% of our annual national budget.

When this facts are on the table , Nigerians through a wide national debate can decide if they want the subsidy or not . Government on its part must convince us that it can or cannot afford the subsidy and reveal to us what will suffer if the subsidy must stay.
There are other issues but I will save them for further discussions in the nearest future.