Nigeria has lost the bid to host the 2021 edition of International Conference on AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Diseases in Africa (ICASA 2021).

Dr Gambo Aliyu, the Director General of National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja.

Aliyu, who blamed the loss on the inability of Nigeria to massively register votes during the bidding, regretted the development but expressed optimism to hosting future ones.

He explained that NACA had greater expectations in the upcoming conference which would now take place in Rwanda from Dec. 2 to Dec. 7.

The NACA director general, however, reiterated the commitment of the agency to continue to partner donor agencies in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

He said “we lost the bid to host ICASA 2021. My expectation in the upcoming Rwanda conference is to seek partnership and mutual collaboration.

“The bid choice is driven by votes from membership. Unfortunately, we did not take time to massively register our votes when the bid was taking place.”

The Rwanda conference theme is “AIDS FREE AFRICA – Innovation, Community, and Political Leadership”.

The aim is to engage the whole continent and stakeholders in the Post-SDG Framework.

About 10000 delegates are expected at the conference. (NAN)