The Director-General, National Institute for Cancer Research and Treatment (NICRAT), Dr Usman Aliyu, has revealed that the Federal Government has commenced the process for the establishment of national cancer registry.
He revealed that the cancer health committee has been set up to look into the implementation of the Cancer Health Fund (CHF), right from the concept, the framework, the operational plan and then the challenges.
He said efforts are underway to establish a centralised standard national cancer registry and data plan in the country.
Aliyu said this on Saturday in Abuja adding that the institute wants to make cancer a notifiable disease and the registry is a very important component in this and in the cancer prevention, treatment and care system.
According to him, a stakeholder engagement took place in 2023 where most of the stakeholders of the CHF came together to brainstorm and raise issues.
“Then the institute finalised some of the issues and came up with a better model. Most of the issues border on enrollment, visibility, transparency, monitoring and evaluation.
“In the area of accessibility, the institute is working toward making it very accessible by employing the patient-navigation and referral system so that the patient can get on board easily and get on the platform.
“For visibility, there is a challenge because of the limitation of funds but we are working, there are lots of commitments and there is a network of legislators advocating alongside non-governmental organisations and government agencies for improvement in this funding.
“So, when that happens, there will be inclusion of more centers and the operational funding will be different from what has been in the system before in terms of enrolment, evaluation, selection of patients because the fund is actually targeted at funding indigent patients.”
He, however, noted that presently, the Federal Government had in the 2024 budget appropriated N200 million to the fund.
He added that efforts were on to increase it in the coming years and for another amount to be set aside for childhood cancers because cases were also gaining momentum.
The institute was established through the NICRAT establishment Act 2017 to provide national leadership in cancer research, treatment and control in Nigeria.
