ABUJA, Oct 22, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Nigeria's national assembly Wednesday launched a probe into how $4.6 billion in international aid grants were spent as the country continues to grapple with high rates of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

The probe, whose findings are due in a month, will investigate spending related to $1.8 billion from the Global Fund, a consortium dedicated to fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Also being investigated is $2.8 billion from USAID -- Washington's now-defunct foreign development arm -- covering a similar portfolio as well as polio.

The grants spanned from 2021 to 2025.

"We really want to know how the funds came in, when they came in, and what they have been used for and what we have been able to achieve," House Representative Philip Agbese, deputy spokesperson for the lower chamber, told AFP.

"If these resources have been properly utilized, why are we still having some of these cases?" he said.

"And if these resources that (government agencies) have received are not enough, as a parliament, what more do we have to do?"

Despite those funds, plus billions more from PEPFAR, a flagship US anti-HIV programme, Nigeria ranked third globally in AIDS deaths as of 2023, according to the Nigerian parliament.

At the same time, progress has been made: according to the United Nations, new HIV infections and AIDS deaths have been steadily ticking down, while more than 80 percent of those who need antiretroviral treatment are receiving it.

Some two thirds of global tuberculosis cases occur in just nine countries, according to the World Health Organization: Nigeria, along with Bangladesh, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Africa's most populous nation also accounts for nearly a third of the world's malaria deaths, although the dismantling of USAID under President Donald Trump and ally Elon Musk earlier this year led to the closure of many clinics dedicated to treating and preventing the disease in the country.