By Our Reporter
Abuja (PRECISE POST) — The Health Reform Initiative Nigeria (He-RIN) has rejected the controversial SNG Health Agreement signed with the Federal Ministry of Health, describing it as deceptive, self-serving and a calculated move to undermine Nigeria’s local mosquito net manufacturers.
In a joint statement issued Wednesday, He-RIN’s Executive Director, Sunday Tobi, and Secretary, Abdul Musa, faulted the partnership between Vestergaard and Harvestfield, which led to the creation of SNG Health for the supply of insecticide-treated mosquito nets (LLINs) in Nigeria.
The group alleged that SNG Health is a continuation of what it described as the questionable dominance of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in Nigeria’s malaria control sector.
“Available evidence shows that SNG Health was incubated by UNOPS at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Health through a Swiss company, in collaboration with the World Bank Nigeria,” the statement said, adding that the arrangement sidelines Nigerian manufacturers.
He-RIN accused the Ministry of Health of deliberately weakening local LLIN producers, linking Nigeria’s persistently high malaria burden to what it described as years of collusion between the ministry and UNOPS, predating the Bola Tinubu administration.
Nigeria bears the world’s heaviest malaria burden, accounting for about 27 per cent of global cases and 31 per cent of deaths, according to the World Health Organization. An estimated 184,000 Nigerians—mostly children under five and pregnant women—die annually from the disease.
The organisation noted that this grim reality persists despite heavy spending on malaria interventions and donor support. While Nigeria received over N1.5 billion for malaria control between 2015 and 2023, He-RIN said the funds were largely spent on imported nets and interventions, with little impact due to policy inconsistency, opaque procurement and weak support for local manufacturing.
He-RIN recalled that a competitive bidding process concluded in 2022 had paved the way for local production of mosquito nets, including a proposed $100 million manufacturing initiative. However, it alleged that the process was abruptly halted after the current administration took office, allegedly at the prompting of UNOPS.
“Since then, there has been no meaningful investment, while mosquitoes continue to ravage communities and Nigeria remains the world’s most malaria-burdened country,” the group said.
The organisation argued that the SNG Health arrangement contradicts President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which emphasises local production, job creation, health system resilience and a Sector-Wide Approach to Universal Health Coverage.
According to He-RIN, blocking local manufacturers from the $100 million initiative denied Nigeria millions of jobs, foreign exchange savings and a chance to significantly reduce malaria deaths.
The group also raised concerns over alleged conflicts of interest, claiming the Minister of Health had prior alignment with Vestergaard and has promoted policies favouring the company while disadvantaging Nigerian-owned manufacturers. It alleged that Vestergaard’s earlier dominance led to the collapse of over 20 local net manufacturers across Lagos, Aba, Kano and Onitsha after free distribution of imported LLINs destroyed the commercial market.
He-RIN further alleged that tenders and malaria campaigns in World Bank-supported states were deliberately delayed until the SNG Health agreement was finalised, and that more than 25 million Global Fund-supported LLINs were steered to a narrow group of companies without Nigeria-specific epidemiological justification.
The group warned against a “one-size-fits-all” approach to LLIN deployment, noting that mosquito species and resistance patterns vary significantly across regions, making a single-net strategy scientifically unsound.
It also accused the ministry of failing to settle long-standing debts owed to local manufacturers who previously supplied nets and helped showcase Nigeria’s capacity, including producing the world’s largest mosquito net recognised by Guinness World Records.
He-RIN called on President Tinubu to urgently intervene, halt the SNG Health arrangement and order a full public accounting of the $100 million initiative intended for local mosquito net manufacturing.
“The lives of Nigerians must not be sacrificed for profit-driven arrangements,” the statement said. “The President must act in the national interest.”
