NCDC says ₦10bn fund targets wider health preparedness

Nigeria’s Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says it received a ₦10 billion emergency intervention approved in June 2026, clarifying that the money was intended for wider health security and not solely for Ebola or the Presidential Task Force on Ebola. NCDC Director-General Jide Idris said the funding was requested as an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo became a global emergency. He said the task force’s role was to coordinate Nigeria’s Ebola response, while the agency would use the intervention to strengthen prevention, preparedness, early detection, rapid response and recovery across multiple public health threats. The diseases and risks covered include Ebola, Lassa fever, cholera, cerebrospinal meningitis, diphtheria, measles, monkeypox and antimicrobial resistance, Idris said. The agency’s wider preparedness work also includes surveillance, laboratory capacity and emergency response systems, according to his account. Idris said the 2025-2029 National Action Plan for Health Security would require about ₦522 billion over five years, an average of ₦104.4 billion annually. He characterized the ₦10 billion intervention as about 2 per cent of the annual...