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Infrastructure For Tomorrow: Interview With AIIB Vice President On Response To Future Challenges

Published

5 years ago

January 17, 2021

In the five years since it was founded, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank has approved more than 20 billion dollars of financing for over 100 projects. Last year, the bank set up a COVID-19 crisis recovery facility, offering loans of up to 13 billion U.S. dollars. Our reporter Feng Yilei talked with its vice president, Sir Danny Alexander, to find out more about the bank’s strategies and response to the global crisis.

SIR DANNY ALEXANDER AIIB Vice President and Corporate Secretary “And obviously, this year, for many of our members, the focus is shifting to vaccine and mass vaccination campaigns. And that’s particular Challenge, particularly in developing countries.”

FENG YILEI CGTN Reporter “Some say, compared to your counterparts, including the World Bank and ADB you’re not doing enough in terms of such medical aid. So what exact role can we expect the AIIB to play?”

SIR DANNY ALEXANDER Vice President and Corporate Secretary “We will operate in a way very much in coordination with our multilateral peers, like the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank, in coordination with the global vaccination organizations. But more broadly, we see there’s a need for a continuing major focus beyond the pandemic on upgrading health and social infrastructure. If populations aren’t healthy, economies cannot function. That’s one of the most obvious lessons of the period of the last year or so.”

FENG YILEI CGTN Reporter “So in that case, how will you reallocate and rebalance your resources and efforts to make sure the new strategy will both pay off in short term and long run?”

SIR DANNY ALEXANDER AIIB Vice President and Corporate Secretary “I think as countries shift from the immediate pandemic response to thinking about both the immediate and long term economic recovery, which you’re right to say that they need to have, then infrastructure will be a key focus in many of those places.

“And in a sense, the contribution that multilateral development banks can make through our investments is to demonstrate through the projects we invest in, that there is both a short term and a long term benefit to the kind of infrastructure for tomorrow that we know our members will need. So we’ve invested, for example, in solar power in Egypt and Kazakhstan and other places. We’ve invested in a number of members to support telecommunications infrastructure in Oman and Cambodia. And these investments help to ensure that countries have the systems that they need to respond effectively to crisis, to communicate with people, to enable businesses to function.

“I think what you see increasingly is that the application of technology to traditional infrastructure also helps to get much better value, much better use out of that infrastructure.”

FENG YILEI CGTN Reporter “As you’re going to leverage more international capital, you’re going to attract more private investors and commercial banks which we think, are not on the common ground with MDBs. So in that case, how will you ensure that they can get a considerable return from the cooperation with MDBs?”

SIR DANNY ALEXANDER AIIB Vice President and Corporate Secretary “We have to find ways to attract private capital into our projects, also to apply our capital in a way that can support private sector development and multilateral bring a number of features that help to crowd in more private sector money to projects. You can see from a range of AIIB projects, the way in which we’ve already taken steps in projects which help to bring private capital in through equity investments and green funds, for example, will help to mobilize much more private capital into clean energy, for example, in the coming years.”

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Financing Health Futures: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda Turn to Tobacco and Telecom Taxes in Big Push Against Malaria

Published

1 week ago

September 28, 2025

The Gleamer

African leaders, parliamentarians, health experts, and development partners have renewed their commitment to ending malaria by 2030, with a bold call for domestic financing through innovative taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and telecom services to close critical funding gaps.

The discussions took center stage at the Big Push Against Malaria: Harnessing Africa’s Role high-level political engagement in Abuja, where Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda showcased new homegrown financing strategies aimed at reducing dependence on dwindling donor support.

Africa’s Heavy Burden

Malaria remains one of Africa’s deadliest diseases. In 2023, the world recorded 263 million cases and nearly 600,000 deaths, with 94% of cases and 95% of deaths occurring in Africa. Nigeria alone accounted for 26.6% of global cases and 31% of deaths, according to the World Malaria Report 2024. Children under five remain the most vulnerable, making up 76% of deaths.

Despite progress — with Nigeria cutting malaria deaths by more than half since 2000 through insecticide-treated nets, preventive treatments, and the rollout of the new R21 malaria vaccine — leaders warned that global targets are off-track. The World Health Organization’s technical strategy for malaria (2016–2030) has stalled since 2017, with Africa unlikely to meet its 2025 and 2030 milestones without urgent action.

Taxing for Health Futures

The Nigerian Parliament’s Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM) announced plans to fund malaria elimination through “sin taxes” and telecom levies.

According to the House Chair on ATM, Hon. Linda Ogar, a bill is underway to restructure the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) into a multi-disease agency that will address HIV, TB, and malaria.

The new financing mechanism proposes:

Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and other luxury items

Dedicated levies on telecom airtime and mobile money transactions

A percentage of the nation’s consolidated revenue

“These resources will provide sustainable funding to strengthen health systems and accelerate malaria elimination,” Ogar said, stressing that Africa must stop relying solely on foreign donors. “We cannot continue to take two steps forward and five steps backward. Africa must begin to show the world that we are ready to solve our problems ourselves.”

Similar models are already being piloted in Ghana and Uganda, where levies on mobile money and telecoms are being redirected to finance health interventions. The Abuja meeting urged other African countries to adopt this approach as part of a continental framework for sustainable financing.

Leaders Call for Urgent Action

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, emphasized that while malaria is preventable and treatable, it still kills hundreds of thousands yearly due to funding shortfalls, climate change, insecticide resistance, and humanitarian crises.

“To truly defeat this disease, we must rethink, join forces, and mount a concerted ‘Big Push’. Funding gaps remain a major obstacle, and innovative domestic financing is the way forward,” Salako declared.

From the civil society front, grassroots representatives pledged to act as “foot soldiers”, demanding that communities have a seat at the decision-making table. The World Health Organization, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Aliko Dangote Foundation, and other partners reaffirmed support but stressed the need for stronger political will and local ownership.

Private Sector and Global Support

Representing billionaire philanthropist Aliko Dangote, the Nigeria Malaria Council reiterated that private sector investment must complement government financing. Meanwhile, the Global Fund confirmed it has invested nearly $2 billion in Nigeria’s malaria response and committed an additional $500 million for 2024–2026, including support for local production of malaria drugs.

The Gates Foundation’s Uche Anaowu noted that while progress has slowed, malaria remains beatable:

“Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated. The question is — can malaria be next? I believe Africa has both the burden and the opportunity to lead the world in making that happen.”

Financing Health Futures: Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda Turn to Tobacco and Telecom Taxes in Big Push Against Malaria

Abuja, Nigeria – African leaders, parliamentarians, health experts, and development partners have renewed their commitment to ending malaria by 2030, with a bold call for domestic financing through innovative taxation on tobacco, alcohol, and telecom services to close critical funding gaps.

Africa’s Heavy Burden

Taxing for Health Futures

The Nigerian Parliament’s Committee on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria (ATM) announced plans to fund malaria elimination through “sin taxes” and telecom levies.

The new financing mechanism proposes:

Taxes on tobacco, alcohol, and other luxury items

Dedicated levies on telecom airtime and mobile money transactions

A percentage of the nation’s consolidated revenue

Leaders Call for Urgent Action

Private Sector and Global Support

The Gates Foundation’s Uche Anaowu noted that while progress has slowed, malaria remains beatable:

“Smallpox is the only human disease ever eradicated. The question is — can malaria be next? I believe Africa has both the burden and the opportunity to lead the world in making that happen.”

The Big Push: From Talk to Action

Speakers acknowledged that Africa has hosted too many malaria meetings without concrete outcomes. This time, however, leaders insisted the Abuja gathering must mark a turning point — from dependency to self-reliance.

With Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda setting the pace on tax-based health financing, the continent now faces the challenge of replicating and scaling up these models.

“Now that Africa is at a critical point, the need for a Big Push against malaria cannot be overemphasized. If we align political will, innovative financing, and community engagement, we can end malaria within our lifetime.”

Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda are pioneering a shift from donor dependence to domestic revenue mobilization via tobacco, alcohol, and telecom taxes — a model hailed as central to financing Africa’s health futures and ending malaria by 2030
Speakers acknowledged that Africa has hosted too many malaria meetings without concrete outcomes. This time, however, leaders insisted the Abuja gathering must mark a turning point — from dependency to self-reliance.

With Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda setting the pace on tax-based health financing, the continent now faces the challenge of replicating and scaling up these models.

“Now that Africa is at a critical point, the need for a Big Push against malaria cannot be overemphasized. If we align political will, innovative financing, and community engagement, we can end malaria within our lifetime.”

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