Resources expended over the last decade to tackle the scourge of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria have yielded significant results. However, the current service coverage continues to lag behind in access. Only 4.7% of ANC facilities in Nigeria offer PMTCT services while only 18% of pregnant women living with HIV (PWLHIV) received more effective ARVs for PMTCT. Hence, indicating a clear need to accelerate the expansion of service coverage to improve access to testing and treatment.

Given the high penetration of the private sector, private providers present a platform for rapid scale-up in HIV/AIDS service delivery. With 60-80% of Nigerians receiving their healthcare services through private providers, it has become imperative that the private sector be engaged on a large scale to bridge the coverage gap.

Solina Health designed a sustainable model to enable Private for Profit (PfPs) to deliver HIV/AIDS services with minimal interruptions to their business model through a sub-grant from the Institute of Human Virology, Nigeria (IHVN) funded by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The AIDS Care and Treatment in Nigeria Plus Up (ACTION Plus Up) project was aimed at supporting private for-profit facilities to provide comprehensive integrated HIV/AIDS care and treatment services.

Over two-hundred and fifty (250) PfPs were assessed and one-hundred and fifty-one (151) were selected and activated across three states: FCT, Benue and Nasarawa to deliver HCT, PMTCT and ART services. The training and supportive supervision, including targeted technical assistance, were provided to engaged PFPs to ensure good quality services were delivered.

Through the engaged PfPs and a network of over four hundred (400) TBAs, the program expanded access to HIV services in both urban and rural parts of the 3 states. In the first year, over three hundred thousand (300,000) individuals received HIV counselling and testing and twenty-three thousand and five hundred (23,500) pregnant women were provided with PMTCT services. One thousand and thirty-six (1,036) people who tested positive were placed on life-saving ARVs while two hundred and twenty-three (223) HIV-exposed babies got results of DNA-PCR tests. By 2014, over four thousand (4,000) HIV-positive clients were placed on treatment at engaged PFPs. These PfPs consequently took ownership of clinical service delivery and progressively drove their Supply Chain Management and Data Reporting to ensure program sustainability.