Introduction
Nigeria’s End Malaria Council (EMC) has been instrumental in establishing malaria as a priority in the federal budget, including a significant increase in dedicated funding for the 2025 and 2026 fiscal years.
Creating dedicated budget line items for malaria
On 23 August 2024, during an EMC meeting chaired by Aliko Dangote, the National Malaria Elimination Programme tabled unfunded gaps from the national malaria strategic plan.
Inside that EMC session, the Chairs of the House Committee on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria and the Senate Committee on Health engaged the Minister of State for Health & Social Welfare – all present as EMC members – and instructed the Ministry to explicitly cost and include malaria needs in its 2025 budget bid.
EMC members reconvened throughout the 4th quarter of 2024 to keep the request intact through appropriations, aligning the ask to real-time operations (the R21/Matrix-M vaccine rollout) and to delivery oversight (vaccine and device-tracking).
The approach delivered. The approved 2025 federal budget created dedicated budget line items for malaria. This included an initial outlay of US$52 million covering both the deployment of the malaria vaccine and complementary malaria interventions (vector control and case management). For example, the budget allocated ₦43 billion for infant malaria vaccination and vaccine and device-tracking system within a ₦232 billion package for immunisation.
Nigeria also moved quickly to address funding gaps caused by the suspension of USAID resources. Lawmakers (led by several of the EMC’s members) approved an extra US$200 million to offset shortfalls for HIV, TB and malaria.
The EMC members have continued their push for sustainable domestic financing for malaria. Members of the House Committee on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria publicly backed a dedicated malaria budget line from 2026 too, and wider National Assembly voices pressed to make key health spending a first-line charge to ensure automatic releases.
These positions were reinforced at a legislative retreat in the 3rd quarter of 2025, which gathered National Assembly members, Federal Ministry of Health, National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), development partners and civil society organisations.
Following a presentation by the EMC coordinator (“Domestic Resource Mobilization – The NEMC option”), participants pledged increased support via constituency projects and advanced recommendations to create a malaria line item, raise government malaria funding to reduce donor dependency, and use policy and legislative tools to strengthen malaria control and elimination.
This approach also worked. The Federal Government allocated US$63 million in its 2026 budget for malaria and $12 million for parliamentary, constituent-engagement funds.
Increasing domestic resources
Nigeria’s increasing domestic resources aligns with continent-wide signals amid a tightening aid landscape. African Union leaders and partners have urged greater domestic investment for malaria and health. At the Abuja “Big Push” meeting in September 2025, they called for sustaining programmes through domestic solutions.
Lessons learned: Concrete and time-bound asks
The End Malaria Council approach ensures that the right decision-makers sit together to discuss and address the challenges faced by the NMEP. This enables accountability and action to convert a technical gap into a budget-ready ask that can be shepherded through appropriations process by the EMC members.
The ask was concrete and time-bound: a malaria-vaccine line item, plus a tracking line item to improve release and last-mile accountability – far easier to mobilise than generic appeals.