Flour Mills, End Fund partner to combat tropical diseases in Nigeria

Flour Mills of Nigeria (FMN) Plc and The END Fund have forged a partnership to tackle prevalent neglected tropical diseases in eight locations across Nigeria.

FMN said in a statement that the partnership was announced on World NTD Day 2022, themed ‘Achieving health equity to end the neglect of poverty-related diseases.’

“The collaboration with the END Fund is significant in many respects and of course aligns with our intervention strategy on health, which is one of the five pillars of our corporate social investments targets for the year. We are positive that this initiative will help reduce the prevalence of NTDs and improve Nigeria’s public health indicators,” FMN said in the statement signed by Joseph Umolu, the Company Secretary/Director, Legal Services.

“The type of support that this partnership will provide is urgently required to enable Nigeria to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3 on ending neglected tropical diseases by 2030. With the assistance of other private sector actors working in tandem with the government and with critical development partners like the END Fund, we will move the needle positively towards attaining the goal of co-creating a healthier and wealthier nation, free from the burden of NTDs,” he added.

Also commenting, the Director, Public Affairs, END Fund, Oyetola Oduyemi, said, “The END Fund is pleased to build upon our work across Nigeria to end the burden of NTDs with this important new partnership with FMN. This partnership demonstrates FMN’s leadership and commitment to continued progress towards the country’s public health goals and allows the END Fund to sustain its mission of bringing an end to these preventable illnesses in Nigeria.”

The investment would specifically support the END Fund in delivering tens of thousands of treatments to those most affected by onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, providing relief from the suffering, disability and poor health caused by these diseases enabling more children to stay in school, and considerably enhancing the quality of life of people receiving the treatments.