The Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu, has called for greater use of local data to guide Nigeria’s malaria interventions, saying subnational tailoring (SNT) can help the country make better use of limited resources and reduce its status as one of the countries bearing the world’s heaviest malaria burdens.
Speaking at a virtual briefing on “Learning from Nigeria’s Exemplary Progress in Malaria Subnational Tailoring (SNT),” Ihekweazu said Nigeria accounts for about 25 per cent of global malaria cases and 30 per cent of malaria deaths.
She said children remain particularly vulnerable, noting that Nigeria accounted for about 38 per cent of global malaria deaths among children under five in 2024. However, malaria parasite prevalence among Nigerian children reportedly declined from 27 per cent in 2015 to 15 per cent in 2025.
Ihekweazu explained that subnational tailoring uses local data to determine the most appropriate mix of malaria interventions for specific states, local government areas and populations.
“The malaria burden, the malaria pattern across the whole country is not the same,” she said, stressing that malaria transmission varies by geography, season and local conditions.
She said the approach has become even more important as international health funding faces growing constraints.
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“With restricted funding … data to guide decision-making becomes even more valuable and even more important,” she said.
Ihekweazu stressed that SNT was not solely responsible for Nigeria’s progress, noting that the country had also made important evidence-based decisions.
She urged policymakers and the media to look beyond malaria statistics and pay greater attention to how evidence informs funding, policy and implementation.
Dr Adachi Ekeh, Director of Strategic Business at Nigeria Health Watch, said Nigeria’s experience demonstrates how malaria subnational tailoring can help governments use data to make more targeted and cost-effective decisions.
According to her, Nigeria was selected alongside Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Tanzania and Laos as an exemplar country for studying malaria subnational tailoring under the Exemplars in Global Health initiative.
She said the research identified persistent challenges to sustaining Nigeria’s malaria gains, including funding gaps, bureaucratic bottlenecks, fragmented governance, insecurity, weak surveillance and limited integration of private-sector data into the national malaria data system.
Ekeh also stressed the need to strengthen technical capacity within government so that Nigeria can independently conduct modelling and data analysis as donor funding declines.
She called for earlier engagement with state-level stakeholders and better communication of SNT decisions to policymakers, programme managers and communities to improve understanding and acceptance of interventions.
Prof. Olugbenga Mokuolu, Strategic Adviser to the Minister of Health on malaria elimination, clarified that SNT is not a malaria intervention itself but a strategy for delivering interventions according to the distribution and pattern of malaria across Nigeria.
He noted that malaria transmission is becoming increasingly heterogeneous across the country, making it necessary to tailor interventions to specific locations rather than apply a uniform approach.
Mokuolu stressed that SNT is dynamic and has no permanent formula, as decisions must evolve alongside new evidence on malaria distribution. He cited the 2025 Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS) as particularly important in shaping the current National Malaria Strategic Plan, emphasising the need for SNT to continually respond to updated data.
He also called for research into the cost savings and efficiency gains attributable to SNT, particularly by comparing resources that would have been required without the approach with those needed under a more targeted strategy.
According to him, demonstrating these savings could strengthen advocacy for SNT and help convince state-level stakeholders of its value as Nigeria continues to scale up the approach.
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