By Muhammad Amaan
The Coordinator of the Africa Health Budget Network (AHBN), Dr Aminu Magashi Garba was honoured with the prestigious Nigeria Cancer Society (NCS) Distinguished Pillar Award 2025.
The award was presented by the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Kunle Salako during the opening ceremony of the 2025 National Oncology Symposium and Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja.
This recognition reflects Dr. Magashi’s longstanding commitment and consistent support to the Nigeria Cancer Society (NCS) in advancing cancer prevention, treatment, and advocacy efforts across the country.
Through his leadership at AHBN, he has fostered a culture of collaboration and accountability that has strengthened the NCS institutional presence and visibility in the national health landscape.
Dr Magashi is the founder and coordinator of AHBN, a regional group that uses budget advocacy to influence adequate health spending and improve transparency and accountability.
He is the Global Co-convener of the Community of Practitioners on Accountability and Social Action in Health.
He is a member of the Global Action Plan for SDG 3 Civil Society Advocacy Group, the immediate past civil society representative to the Global Financing Facility (GFF) Investors Group (2017/18) and currently a member of the steering committee of the Global Civil Society Coordinating Group for the GFF.
In 2018, he served on the World Health Organization (WHO) Civil Society Advisory Group for its Health Financing Campaign.
In Nigeria, Dr Magashi is a founding member of the National Advocates for Health (NA4H), a policy and advocacy think-tank engaging in high-level advocacy on health-care financing reforms.
In his voluntary capacity he has been a weekly health columnist with the Nigerian newspaper “Daily Trust” for over 17 years and the publisher of an online newspaper “Health Reporters,” which reports on Africa’s health.
He is also the founder of Aminu Magashi Garba Foundation (AMGF), a not-for-profit organization that supports humanitarian services, economic empowerment, peace and security, educational growth and innovative health interventions including WASH servcies.
He holds an MBBS degree from University of Maiduguri, Nigeria and a Master of Science in Public Health and post-graduate diploma from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where he was a Chevening scholar (2006/07).
During his undergraduate studies he was the Vice President of Nigerian Medical Students Association in 1997/1998.
