NLNG, USAID partner on malaria elimination in Bonny

Chinazor MegboluThe Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has entered into a partnership by signing a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in a bid to eliminate malaria in Bonny Island.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, NLNG, Engr. Tony Attah, who signed on behalf of NLNG while the United States Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms. Mary Beth Leonard signed for USAID.

The initiative indicates that USAID will provide technical assistance to NLNG’s led Bonny Island Malaria Elimination Project (BNYMEP) under the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI).

The BNYMEP will use the opportunity to help reduce the malaria challenges, and also move the community to pre-elimination status.

The initiative will help bring malaria-related mortality to zero, and make Bonny Island Nigeria’s first malaria-free zone.

The MoU further showed that the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is focused on decreasing malaria-related mortality by 50 per cent across 24 high-burden developing nations in sub-Saharan Africa, with the inclusion of Nigeria and three Southeast Asian countries, through a rapid scale-up of four proven and highly effective malaria prevention and treatment measures.

Moreover, Attah averred that NLNG commenced the Bonny Malaria Elimination Project (BNYMEP) in January 2019 as part of its vision to transform Bonny Island into a tourism and economic hub in the West African region.

He added that a malaria-free zone was key to attracting investments to the Island, which will positively impact the socio-economic well-being of its inhabitants.