On 25 April 2025, the world commemorated World Malaria Day with renewed urgency and a bold theme: “Malaria Ends With Us: Reinvest, Reimagine, Reignite.” The World Health Organisation, along with global health advocates, seized the moment to call for revitalised action at every level—global, national, and local—to finally bring the age-old scourge of the disease to an end. For Nigeria, where malaria remains one of the deadliest diseases and a persistent public health threat, this year’s theme struck especially close to home.
The statistics speak for themselves. Despite decades of donor-backed interventions, awareness campaigns, and policy declarations, malaria continues to claim thousands of Nigerian lives each year. The country remains the epicentre of the global malaria crisis, accounting for 27 per cent of all cases and a staggering 31 per cent of malaria-related deaths worldwide. The burden is most lethal for children under five and pregnant women, but no demographic is spared.
Beyond its devastating human cost, the mosquito-borne disease extracts a brutal economic toll. Nigerians spend an estimated ₦1.156 trillion annually on treatment, a figure that includes hospital visits, drugs, and productivity losses. Moreover malaria-related absenteeism disrupts schooling for millions of children, while workers in agriculture and the informal sector lose countless days of income.
Recognising the gravity of the situation, the Federal Government has pledged to eliminate malaria by 2030. Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako, reaffirmed this commitment, outlining key strategies such as reaching 30 million children with preventive malaria medicines, filling funding gaps left by the freeze in USAID/PMI malaria elimination activities, and ensuring the procurement of essential malaria commodities, including Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs), diagnostic kits, and preventive medication for pregnant women.
While international donors like the Global Fund and USAID have played a crucial role in malaria control, Nigeria must increase domestic financing to sustain progress. A greater share of the national budget must be allocated to strengthening primary healthcare centres, expanding the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, funding routine testing and treatment for the condition, and enhancing training and compensation for community health workers, who serve as the first point of care in rural areas.
The government must embrace cutting-edge solutions to accelerate elimination of the condition. Advances in digital health, data analytics, and biotechnology offer powerful tools. Drone technology is now being used to spray larvicides in hard-to-reach swampy regions where mosquitoes breed. Mobile applications support real-time malaria surveillance and prompt treatment. The RTS,S malaria vaccine, already piloted in other African countries, presents new hope. Nigeria must rapidly scale up vaccine deployment, particularly in high-burden regions.
Nigeria has no shortage of well-crafted policies, but implementation gaps have hindered progress. Weak coordination between federal and state health agencies, bureaucratic delays, and poor accountability mechanisms must be urgently addressed. Malaria elimination requires not just political will, but sustained follow-through.
The role of communities cannot be overstated. The disease is not just a medical problem; it is a social one. Traditional rulers, religious leaders, and grassroots organisations must be engaged as co-owners of the fight. Public health campaigns should move beyond technical jargon to culturally resonant messages that demystify malaria and dismantle fatalism. People must come to see malaria not as an inevitable part of life, but as a solvable public health challenge. When communities are mobilised, and when they trust the systems meant to serve them, uptake of preventive and treatment services improves dramatically.
Routine monitoring and transparent evaluation must also become standard practice. One of thecountry’s perennial health sector failures is poor data management. Many interventions are rolled out without clear benchmarks for success, and progress is often measured anecdotally rather than with reliable indicators. Regular reporting on key metrics—such as bed net coverage, diagnostic testing rates, case fatality ratios, and vaccine uptake—will ensure accountability and allow mid-course corrections. Without data, Nigeria is flying blind.
World Malaria Day 2025 should not end with the usual parade of speeches. It must be a turning point. With 160 million people still at risk, and over 80,000 malaria-related deaths annually in Nigeria alone, the time for half-measures is over. The tools exist, the science is clear, and the public desire for change is evident. But unless Nigeria matches rhetoric with results, the vision of a malaria-free country by 2030 will remain just that—a vision.
