The fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa is set to intensify as private corporations like Ecobank increasingly signify interest in pooling resources to fight the disease by contributing to the Global Funds Replenishment.

At an event held in Washington, Chairman of Board of the Global Fund Dr. Nafsiah Mboi, acknowledged contributions of pan-African banking group, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, which through its Foundation contributed $3 million as a minimum amount over three years.

Also Bill Gates, a keynote speaker at the event and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation welcomed efforts and advocated for more private-sector participation in tackling the AIDS scourge and other diseases all over the world.

“The private sector plays an important part in the Global Fund’s progress against HIV, TB, and malaria,’ Clinton said.

Chevron, BHP Billiton and other high level partners were also commended by the Fund organizers.

Chevron, a long-standing partner of the Fund, said it would commit an additional $5 million over the next two years to target the prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) in Nigeria.

This commitment raises Chevron’s 8-year investment in the Fund to $60 million, making the company the single largest corporate private sector donor to the organization.

BHP Billiton, on its own part is contributing $13 million to support malaria efforts in Mozambique in the next 3 years in order to reach the universal malaria prevention coverage by 2014.

While marking the ‘World AIDS Day’ on December 1, Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, had appealed for the international community to work even harder to end stigma, discrimination and complacency, to stop new HIV infections among children.

He also welcomed progress being made in the fight against the disease thus far; “On this World AIDS Day, I am more optimistic than ever. Much of the world is accelerating progress in responding to HIV,” he said.

The Global Fund is raising funding for the 2014-2016 period so that it can effectively support countries in fighting AIDS, TB and malaria.

With strategic investment in programs that can save millions of lives and tens of billions of dollars in future costs, the Global Fund and its partners believe they offer remarkable value for money.

So far, thirteen presidents of African countries are acting as champions of the Global Fund Replenishment this year.