Motivation for engaging in sex work and potential for quitting the profession by brothel-based female sex workers in Calabar, Cross river state: An agenda for a contextual HIV elimination strategy for Nigeria

Introduction: Over the past decades, sex workers have been vilified, implicated and stigmatized in the epidemiology of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic. While these negative perspectives about sex workers have changed in some climes, they still face discrimination, harassment and stigmatization in most developing countries. The fact remains however that the global push to eliminate HIV cannot be achieved without factoring in sex workers. Method:  A cross-sectional design was employed, using a questionnaire to obtain responses from 200 brothel-based female sex workers on their motivation for engaging in sex work. Data was analysed with SPSS and results presented in frequencies. Results: Majority (52%) of the respondents attributed their engaging in sex work as a result of frustration from joblessness; 38% of the respondents went into sex work for pecuniary reasons, while 4.5% went into sex work for pleasure and fun. All the 200 BBFSWs expressed their willingness to quit sex work if they found alternative job opportunities. Conclusion: Most of the brothel-based female sex workers were aware of the HIV predisposing risk actors associated with sex work. They all expressed their willingness to quit the profession if they are gainfully employed. In this regard, the adoption of policy initiatives that engender access to right information, social support, confidence building and skills development for job creation and entrepreneurship would be veritable incentives for actively engaging female sex workers in the global fight to eliminate HIV/AIDS and ultimately motivate them to quit sex work. This will help to reduce the existing pool for transmitting new HIV infections and by extension the National HIV prevalence.