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KADOMA – The National Aids Council (NAC) has surpassed by $5 million the target it had set to collect during the first six months of this year with the mining sector being the largest contributor, an official has said.
NAC had targeted to collect $18 million for the period, and by the end of June it had $23 million in its coffers.
Finance director Albert Manenji said levies that the Zimbabwe Revue Authority collected were the second major revenue stream for the Aids Fund.
“Since 2016, the mining sector has been contributing to the Aids Fund as part of its corporate social responsibility program,” he said..
“ZIMRA stepped up its game in terms of tax collection. There was an improvement in its collections,” he added.
Last year, NAC collected $36.4 million from a target of $32.3 million.
Manenji said Zimbabwe had made great strides in treatment and prevention as it reduced new HIV infections by 50 percent.
He said NAC spent $28.4 million towards treatment and $9.4 million on prevention.
The country, Manenji said, needed to improve on domestic funding as foreign donors were financing most of its programs.
“We want a situation whereby Zimbabwe spends about 75 percent towards treatment while 25 percent comes from donors,” he said.
Manenji said the government was spending about US$7 million every month to treat more than 1.1 million people out of the 1.3 million people living with HIV and Aids in the country. – New Ziana
Bongani Ndlovu