Agreement signed with Brazil on AIDS and agriculture

Brazil has signed bilateral agreements on anti-AIDS technology and agriculture with Nigeria, after a two-day meeting this week in the capital, Abuja. According to a local newspaper, Nigeria First, the agreements include boosting the agricultural sectors of both countries, as well as the transfer of Brazilian technology to the West African country for the production of antiretroviral drugs. The Nigerian government announced plans to quadruple its number of people on anti-AIDS treatment by mid-2006, allowing up to 250,000 HIV-positive people to receive medication. In 1991, the continent's most populous country had an HIV prevalence rate of around two percent, but this had shot up to five percent by 2003.