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The US state department says the $2 billion agreement between Nigeria and the United States includes plans to monitor data and increase health surveillance to enable prompt response to disease outbreaks.
TheCable found details of the pact in the America First Global Health Strategy document, an MoU signed with at least 20 African countries including Nigeria.
While the individual country agreements have not been made public, the broader document offers insight into the expectations placed on participating countries.
The deal, which will run over a five-year period, from April 2026 to December 2030, was inked between Nigeria and the US last December.
Under the pact, the US government will provide almost $2 billion in grant funding, while Nigeria will mobilise nearly $3 billion for health sector development within the same timeframe.
HEALTH DATA SHARING
At the time, emphasis was placed on the funding being a support mechanism for Christian faith-based healthcare providers, but concerns later emerged over potential encroachments on the country’s health sovereignty.
In the health strategy document, the US said it will partner with recipient countries to develop a streamlined and robust performance monitoring system that at a minimum will be able to monitor data in four areas: service delivery, epidemiology, supply chain, and co-investment.
Nigeria’s ministry of health noted that both countries intend to negotiate a “regulated data-sharing arrangement to exchange information on the long-term performance of the MoU, in compliance with applicable laws governing data protection, privacy, ownership, access
rights, and hosting requirements”.
The ministry did not provide details on what kind of data would be shared.
An earlier circulating version of the MoU included stronger language on direct access to national databases and also made several references to the sharing of pathogens and pathogen sequence data with the US for 25 years.
The US can then share the specimen and data with up to ten “non-U.S. Government U.S. entities” with the capability to develop diagnostics or other medical countermeasures.
The requirement was said to be contained in the agreements with Nigeria, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Mozambique.
If countries fail to provide these resources, they could lose all funding included in the agreement.
‘AID IN EXCHANGE FOR ZAMBIA’S MINERALS, RESTRICTIVE REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS’
In March, the New York Times reported, that the US MoU with Zambia was dependent on the Southern African country providing more access to its critical minerals.
Citing a state department memo, the NYT report said the US was considering withholding lifesaving assistance to people with HIV in Zambia as a negotiating tactic to force the government’s hand. The deal was valued at $1 billion.
Across Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Liberia, and Uganda, the deals also required partner governments to provide the US government with broad access to data and information to monitor compliance with the Helms Amendment, according to Human Rights Watch.
The Helms Amendment is a US law that prohibits foreign assistance from being used to pay for abortion as a method of family planning or to motivate or coerce a person to practice abortion.
In all agreements, failure to provide this access can result in “changes to planned assistance and/or discontinuation of the agreement,” meaning if they fail to comply countries could lose anywhere from US $124 million over five years in the case of Liberia to $1.8 billion in the case of Nigeria for HIV, TB, malaria, maternal and child health, laboratory systems, clinical commodities, and health workforce support that populations depend on for life-sustaining care, the HRW report said.
The agreement with Uganda goes as far as allowing US officials to conduct unannounced spot checks at health facilities and clinics.
