By Yakubu LAAH InvestAdvocate

Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-The Ecobank Group on Thursday announced a $3 million support for Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the lender said in a statement.

With the new support, the Ecobank Group and Global Fund are expanding their partnership to include South Sudan after collaborating since 2011 on capacity-building programmes for Global Fund implementers in Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria.

According to the statement, the Global Fund programme in South Sudan is being implemented through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Population Services International (PSI).

‘’In South Sudan, the Global Fund/Ecobank partnership seeks to strengthen the financial management capabilities of Global Fund ‘Sub-Recipients’ and ‘Sub-Sub-Recipients’ through the provision of technical assistance and capacity building expertise and services. Assessments were carried out for three national programme Sub-Recipients under existing grants, namely the Ministry of Health/HIV Programme, the National Tuberculosis, Leprosy and Buruli Ulcer Control Programme, and the National Malaria Control Programme,’’ the statement affirmed.

The lender said through a partnership with Accounting for International Development (AfID), of the United Kingdom, Ecobank South Sudan has used the information and analysis provided by the Sub-Recipients and the Global Fund to design and implement a project plan to provide financial management capacity building for the national entities mentioned above.

‘’This will be done through Ecobank’s own training and through placement of AfID volunteer accountants. The capacity building programme is expected to take about 12 weeks,’’ Ecobank affirmed.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria mobilizes and invests nearly $4 billion a year to support programs run by local experts in more than 140 countries. As a partnership between governments, civil society, the private sector and people affected by the diseases, the Global Fund is accelerating the end of AIDS, TB and malaria as epidemics.