Stakeholders have urged Nigeria Government to deepen private sector participation in efforts to eliminate cancer, especially cervical cancer, saying greater integration will expand equitable access across prevention, screening, treatment and financing in Nigeria.
Vuyo Mjekula, External Affairs Director for sub-Saharan Africa at Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), said the changing global funding environment and declining donor support had made it increasingly important for Nigeria to mobilise domestic resources and bring the private sector more directly into national health priorities.
Mjekula spoke at a high-level policy roundtable recently organised by MSD in partnership with Africa Health Business (AHB), themed ‘Accelerating Cervical Cancer Elimination in Nigeria: Uniting Public and Private Sectors for Equitable Access.’ The roundtable brought together stakeholders from government, healthcare, public health, the private sector and the cancer advocacy community.
She said the private sector had an important role to play in building on the progress already made through Nigeria’s national Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme, while helping to close gaps in cervical cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment.
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“We believe that there’s a great opportunity for the increased involvement of the private sector”, Mjekula said while acknowledging the progress made by federal government towards cervical cancer elimination especially HPV vaccination.
“The opportunity now is to build on this momentum through stronger collaboration among government, the private sector, healthcare providers, civil society and patient advocates.
“Sustainable progress will require coordinated action to help ensure that prevention, screening, treatment and financing solutions reach the women and communities that need them most,” Mjekula added.
She pointed to the COVID-19 response as evidence of what could be achieved when private healthcare providers were integrated into a national health response, stating that a similar approach could be applied to cervical cancer elimination. COVID-19 showed us that it is possible for countries and for Ministries of Health to bring in the private sector and many other social partners to address a health threat,” she said.
Mjekula also disclosed that MSD was working with Gavi and UNICEF on access to higher-valency HPV vaccines in Africa.
She said the company had also invested more than $44 million in Nigeria over the past decade through its MSD for Mothers initiative to support civil society organisations working in maternal healthcare.
Speaking at the event, Rufai Garba, Director, Disease Control and Immunisation, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), said the Federal Government has vaccinated more than 18 million adolescent girls against Human Papillomavirus (HPV), representing about 76% of the target population, as it moves to expand cervical cancer screening, early diagnosis and treatment across the country.
Garba said Nigeria introduced HPV vaccination into the national programme in October 2023, adding that the vaccine had since become part of the routine immunisation schedule and was available free of charge to nine-year-old girls at public health facilities.
According to him, the vaccine is also available in private health facilities for people outside the routine target age who wish to receive it.
Garba said the scale of cervical cancer in Nigeria remained a major public health concern, with about 12,000 new cases and nearly 8,000 deaths recorded annually.
“We see around 12,000 new cases every year in Nigeria, and we lose close to 8,000 women on a yearly basis. So, that’s how serious it is,” he said.
He, however, said the government’s response must go beyond vaccination to include screening, early diagnosis, treatment and follow-up.
“If it is not diagnosed early, if it is not treated early, it leads to death. So, that’s what all of this is about, not just the vaccination, which NPHCDA does, but also how we are able to get women to screen them, to catch them early, treat them and follow them up till they actually get better,” Garba said.
