Nigeria has been urged to strengthen domestic financing for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) programmes as the United Kingdom’s Fleming Fund, a major international supporter of antimicrobial stewardship initiatives, begins to scale down its funding in the country.
The Commonwealth Partnership for Antimicrobial Stewardship (CwPAMS 2.5) in Nigeria has concluded its programme with a call for sustained national commitment to combat AMR, described as one of the country’s most urgent but overlooked public health threats.
The close-out and sustainability meeting, held on Wednesday in Abuja, brought together health leaders, policymakers and partners to review progress made since CwPAMS 2.5 commenced in 2021.
Pharm. Estelle Mbadiwe, Founding Partner at Ducit Blue Solutions, the in-country coordinating organization for CwPAMS, said the programme recorded “major wins” across 17 health facilities, including five hub sites, and created models that Nigeria must now integrate into national systems.
“This event is not just a close-out; it is a sustainability conversation. CwPAMS 2.5 has delivered critical gains in antimicrobial stewardship over the past three years, and what we are discussing now is how these gains can be absorbed into Nigeria’s national mechanisms,” she said.
Mbadiwe explained that antimicrobial stewardship focuses on ensuring that medicines used to treat infections, such as antibiotics and antifungals, remain effective as bacteria and other pathogens evolve.
“Drugs that used to work are no longer effective, and that threatens quality healthcare. This programme has helped Nigeria build systems, skills and strategies to combat resistance, while also creating platforms for bilateral learning with UK health institutions,” she said.
She highlighted achievements including the development of facility-level guidelines for managing AMR, improved data quality, medicine quality reviews, strengthened leadership structures and deeper community awareness.
“We have been able to integrate the programme into the National Action Plan on AMR, working closely with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and other partners. Funding for AMR has also increased in several states,” she said.
She emphasized the need for Nigeria to sustain its hub-and-spoke model, mentorship activities, community pharmacy engagement and facility-based data systems beyond the project’s lifespan.
“We are sustaining what we have already built—community engagement, capacity building, data-driven decision-making and awareness creation. These should continue and be expanded,” she added.
She urged Nigerians to understand AMR and take collective responsibility.
“AMR is often described as a silent pandemic, but I believe we must speak out. Every Nigerian must know what it is and their role in addressing it,” she said.
Former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, who serves on Nigeria’s National Community of Practice on AMR and is an outgoing member of the UN Global Leaders Group on AMR, said Nigeria must take ownership of AMR control beyond donor support such as the Fleming Fund.
Chukwu noted that while the UK Government deserves commendation for funding CwPAMS 2.5, Nigeria must demonstrate equal commitment, especially as it prepares to showcase progress at next year’s UN High-Level Meeting on AMR.
“Funding may be tapering off globally, but Nigeria must sustain these gains. We expect that normal government budgetary allocations will begin to reflect AMR as a major national priority,” he said.
He urged Nigerian institutions to explore additional international financing channels, including the Global Fund, and mobilize domestic support through private sector engagement.
According to him, some of the most impactful interventions require minimal funding but rely heavily on political will and consistency.
“Infection prevention and control, water, sanitation and personal hygiene are powerful tools. The media has been extremely helpful in educating millions of Nigerians on AMR,” he said.
He warned that AMR remains one of the leading causes of death in the country.
“In 2021 alone, 65,000 Nigerians died directly from antimicrobial resistance. This is more than deaths from insurgency that same year. AMR is not an abstract concept; it is killing real people,” he said.
He explained that AMR occurs when disease-causing bacteria and other organisms evolve to resist medicines, making previously treatable infections fatal.
“These organisms are fighting back. The danger is that when the drugs stop working, infections become untreatable and people die,” he said.
Dr. Jide Idris, Director-General of NCDC, said that under Nigeria’s first National Action Plan on AMR, stewardship performance was “just below 40 per cent,” and on closer review, effective implementation might be closer to 20 per cent.
Idris, represented by NCDC AMR Programme Manager, Dr. Ridwan Yahaya, said only a few tertiary hospitals currently have functional antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes, despite widespread drug misuse and resistance.
“Because many antibiotics are consumed in the community, not just in hospitals, NCDC wants to engage community pharmacists and other community-level drug distributors to extend AMS beyond hospitals,” he said.
He urged the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare to ensure all tertiary hospitals become AMS hubs, while state governments establish AMR governance structures across human, animal and environmental health sectors to enable outreach to secondary and primary facilities.
He said NCDC plans to reactivate the national antimicrobial stewardship network so that hospitals across states can share lessons, provide mentorship and coordinate efforts in a unified way.
“Stewardship cannot remain project-based; it must be institutionalized nationally with support from federal and state ministries, not just hospitals enrolled in CwPAMS 2.5,” he said.
He also encouraged AMS committee leads from participating hospitals to join the national Technical Working Group on AMR and called for broader stakeholder involvement, including veterinary and environmental sectors and professional associations such as the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN).
Ms. Oluwatoni Akinola, AMR and IPC Programme Officer at DRASA Health Trust, said the close-out of the CwPAMS programme marked an important milestone in Nigeria’s effort to tackle antimicrobial resistance.
Akinola noted that AMR remains one of the most pressing global health threats and requires coordinated, multisectoral action across human, animal and environmental health.
She said the programme demonstrated the impact of strong partnerships, with participating organizations strengthening antimicrobial stewardship, improving workforce competencies and expanding local capacity to combat resistance.
According to her, the measurable gains recorded across hospitals reflect the value of sustained collaboration, technical support and shared commitment to protecting communities.
She added that the innovations and lessons from the programme would shape ongoing national efforts to reduce the burden of AMR and preserve the effectiveness of medicines for future generations.
Experts reiterated that combating AMR requires a multisectoral, One Health approach involving human health, animal health, the environment and community participation.
They urged the government, health facilities, professional bodies and the public to build on the foundation laid by CwPAMS and scale it nationally.
Experts stressed that AMR cannot be left to donors and insisted that Nigeria must lead the way.
NAN reports that antimicrobial resistance is the ability of germs such as bacteria, viruses and fungi to withstand medicines that were previously effective against them.
