About 44.9% of children in Nigeria sleep under insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), leaving roughly 55% unprotected from mosquito bites that transmit malaria, according to the Nigeria Malaria Indicator Survey (NMIS) 2025.
The survey also found that 97% of the country’s population is at risk of malaria, with young children, pregnant women and unborn babies the most vulnerable.
The National Elimination Malaria Programme said ITN use remains one of the most effective ways to prevent malaria and has significantly reduced child mortality.
Speaking at a church service and medical outreach at The Father’s Church in Jahi, Abuja, ahead of the 2026 World Malaria Day, the program’s national coordinator, Dr. Nnenna Ogbulafor, urged Nigerians to seek proper diagnosis before treatment.
“Not every fever is malaria,” she said, advising people to get tested and avoid self-medication.
Ogbulafor also urged pregnant women to register early for antenatal care to receive sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP), a preventive treatment that protects both mother and unborn child. She said the medication should be taken at least three times before delivery.
She encouraged prompt testing for all fever cases and advised that confirmed malaria infections be treated with artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), with patients completing the full course of medication.
Hope Obokoh, advocacy, communication and social mobilization officer for the program, warned that delayed or improper treatment could lead to severe malaria, drug resistance, coma or death.
“Insist on the use of ACT only. ACT is safe, affordable and effective,” Obokoh said, adding that the treatment is widely available in both public and private health facilities.
She noted that while global progress has been made in reducing malaria, Nigeria continues to advance its control efforts. Obokoh added that early diagnosis, proper treatment and adherence to prescribed medication remain critical to eliminating the disease.
