He-RIN Rejects SNG Health Deal, Demands Protection and Support for Local Mosquito Net Manufacturers

The Health Reform Initiative Nigeria (He-RIN), a civil society organisation promoting health sector reform through increased funding, accountability and local capacity development, has rejected the SNG Health Agreement signed with the Federal Ministry of Health, describing it as self-serving, misleading and a calculated move to weaken existing local mosquito net manufacturers.

In a joint statement issued on Wednesday by its Executive Director, Sunday Tobi, and Secretary, Abdul Musa, He-RIN condemned the agreement that produced a partnership between Vestergaard and Harvestfield, which led to the establishment of SNG Health for the supply of mosquito nets in Nigeria.
According to the organisation, the arrangement represents a continuation of the operations of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), which it said previously dominated the sector under questionable conditions.
“From available evidence widely reported in the media weeks ago, the so-called SNG Health was incubated by UNOPS at the instance of the Federal Ministry of Health through a Swiss company, in collaboration with the World Bank Nigeria, which operates as a sister organisation to UNOPS,” the statement said.
He-RIN accused the Ministry of Health of deliberately undermining local manufacturers of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, linking Nigeria’s persistent malaria burden and inability to significantly reduce malaria-related deaths to what it described as the ministry’s long-standing collaboration with UNOPS, predating the Bola Tinubu administration that assumed office in 2023.
The organisation noted that Nigeria continues to carry the heaviest malaria burden globally. Citing the World Health Organization (WHO) World Malaria Report, He-RIN stated that Nigeria accounts for about 27 per cent of global malaria cases and 31 per cent of malaria-related deaths, with an estimated 184,000 deaths annually, mostly among children under five and pregnant women.
He-RIN observed that this situation persists despite significant public expenditure on health. Figures from the Budget Office of the Federation show that Nigeria’s health sector has consistently received between four and six per cent of the annual national budget, far below the 15 per cent benchmark set by the Abuja Declaration.
In the 2024 Federal Budget, the health sector was allocated about N1.3 trillion, representing just over five per cent of total government spending.
On malaria-specific funding, the organisation disclosed that Nigeria received and deployed more than N1.5 billion for malaria control interventions between 2015 and 2023, based on data from the National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) and partner funding disclosures.
These funds, largely sourced from the Global Fund, World Bank, USAID and United Nations agencies, were mainly spent on procuring and distributing insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs), indoor residual spraying, diagnostics and antimalarial medicines.
“Despite this level of investment, Nigeria continues to struggle with malaria control due to policy inconsistency, excessive dependence on imported mosquito nets, weak local manufacturing capacity and opaque procurement practices,” He-RIN stated.
The organisation recalled that the Federal Government had concluded arrangements for the local manufacture of mosquito nets following a competitive bidding process completed in 2022, but alleged that the process was abruptly halted at the prompting of UNOPS shortly after the current administration took office.
“Since then, the sector has recorded no meaningful investment. Mosquitoes continue to devastate communities, while Nigeria retains the unenviable status of the world’s most malaria-burdened country,” the statement added.
He-RIN argued that these developments contradict President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda for the health sector, which emphasises a Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) to Universal Health Coverage (UHC), increased funding, strengthened Primary Health Care through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), reforms under the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), health workforce development and the promotion of local production as a foundation for a resilient health system.
The organisation stressed that if local manufacturers had not been excluded from a proposed $100 million contract for the domestic production of insecticide-treated nets, millions of direct and indirect jobs could have been created, foreign exchange conserved and malaria-related deaths significantly reduced.
He-RIN maintained that SNG Health does not serve Nigeria’s national interest, describing it as a resurgence of vested interests within the Ministry of Health, working in concert with UNOPS, following what it alleged was a failed attempt to divert the $100 million initiative.
The group called on the President to urgently investigate the matter to ascertain why, in its view, the Ministry of Health is prioritising profit-driven arrangements over the health and lives of Nigerians, while malaria continues to claim hundreds of thousands of lives each year.
He-RIN also expressed concern that the Honourable Minister of Health has never publicly acknowledged the existence of local long-lasting insecticidal net (LLIN) manufacturers in Nigeria, despite their verifiable presence, international certifications and documented supply history to agencies such as the Global Fund and the World Bank.
The organisation alleged that the Minister assumed office with a conflict of interest, having previously worked in alignment with Vestergaard, and has since advanced policies that favour personal and commercial interests while systematically disadvantaging Nigerian-owned manufacturers.
It further alleged that Vestergaard, the company behind the SNG partnership, was responsible for the closure of over 20 mosquito net manufacturers across Lagos, Aba, Kano and Onitsha after introducing a standard LLIN distributed free nationwide, effectively destroying the commercial market.
According to He-RIN, the Minister encouraged UNOPS to exclude and effectively bar local manufacturers who had invested substantial personal and borrowed funds to establish LLIN factories, creating a vacuum that paved the way for SNG Health to emerge as the preferred supplier.
The organisation also alleged that the Minister delayed tenders and malaria intervention campaigns in World Bank-supported states until the SNG Health agreement was finalised, allowing procurement contracts to be channelled directly to the SNG arrangement.
He-RIN claimed that the Minister pushed for the award of over 25 million Global Fund-supported LLINs to a limited group of favoured companies without any publicly disclosed or Nigeria-specific epidemiological study, despite national data showing that multiple LLIN types remain effective across different regions.
The organisation emphasised that Nigeria’s epidemiological evidence supports the deployment of varied LLIN technologies tailored to regional mosquito species and resistance patterns, noting that mosquitoes in Lagos differ significantly from those in Ebonyi and Sokoto States, making a single-net approach scientifically indefensible.
He-RIN asserted that corruption, rather than public health outcomes, appears to drive policies that ignore existing local manufacturers who had invested millions of dollars to establish LLIN factories and had successfully supplied international donors, including the Global Fund and the World Bank.
The organisation recalled that the Ministry of Health still owes local manufacturers for supplies delivered more than a decade ago, even as those manufacturers once showcased Nigeria’s capacity by producing the world’s largest mosquito net, recognised by Guinness World Records and displayed at Eagle Square, Abuja, during the African Leaders’ Summit on Roll Back Malaria.
According to He-RIN, the initiative was intended to demonstrate Nigeria’s manufacturing capability, encourage sustained local production of LLINs and justify continued government and donor support for manufacturers who had borrowed heavily to build factories.
The group questioned why SNG Health was prioritised when Nigerian manufacturers could have been supported through sovereign-backed loan guarantees of up to $40 million, combined with assured market access, achieving similar outcomes without displacing existing players.
He-RIN warned that the Minister’s current policy direction is detrimental to local manufacturers, as SNG Health competes in the same limited market while benefiting from preferential treatment that distorts competition and threatens industry survival.
The organisation further alleged that the Minister stalled the release of tenders for World Bank-borrowed funds for more than two years, despite increasing malaria deaths among children, until the SNG Health framework was fully established. It cautioned that similar strategies are now being promoted under the guise of advancing “dual” LLIN technology, even though SNG Health is not the sole global producer of such nets and dual LLINs should not be imposed as Nigeria’s exclusive option.
“We therefore call on President Bola Tinubu to act in the national interest by suspending the SNG Health arrangement and directing the Ministry of Health to publicly account for what became of the $100 million initiative meant for local mosquito net manufacturing,” the statement said.