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Last updated: 11 March 2025

1.1 People who use drugs, HIV and viral hepatitis

There are estimated to be 177,500.

National HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs increased from 4% in 2010 to 10.9% in 2022, while it is reported to be as high as 23.4% in Benue.

People who inject drugs and their partners are estimated to account for about 9% of the annual new HIV infections. Exchanging sex or money for drugs is reported.

Self-reported prevalence of hepatitis C (HCV) is estimated to be 3.3% amongst people who inject drugs.

There is no account of domestic harm reduction funding since there has not been any commitment in this regard. The implementation of the National Drug Control Master Plan (NDCMP 2021–2025), which includes harm reduction as a strategic pillar, has not operationalised due to little or no funding commitment by the government over the years.

Within the Global Fund GC7 funding request, the total requested budget for key populations was 18% of the total HIV funding requested (USD 343,604,945); however, the total allocation for people who use drugs was only 2% of the total key populations allocation.

Plans to roll out opioid agonist therapy in early 2025 have been halted. It was due to be implemented in 4 states. Plans have been reduced to 1 state due to a halt in PEPFAR funding.

On March 11, 2025, the MAT pilot program in Gombe state was launched by the federal government of Nigeria through the federal and state (Gombe) ministry of health and funded by the Global Fund.

There has been an impact on needle and syringe programmes, which had been co-funded by the Global Fund and PEPFAR. The provision of NSP in 7 states supported by PEPFAR has been suspended.

This leaves NSP in only 4 states supported by the Global Fund.

By the end of the GC6 (2021–2023), Nigeria had over 40,000 clients enrolled in harm reduction services, and the majority are affected by the PEPFAR funding cuts.