Nigeria Approves 20-Year Airport Biosecurity Partnership

Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council approved a 20-year public-private partnership to establish a biosecurity and disease-response system at five international airports, Health Minister Muhammad Ali Pate said after the council’s October 28 meeting. The proposed network would monitor for infectious disease threats and coordinate responses at airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano, Port Harcourt and Enugu. The project is to be delivered with Biohealth Consortium. Under the arrangement described by Pate, the private partner would finance, design, build, deploy, operate and maintain the system during the concession. The federal government would provide policy, institutional and regulatory oversight, and the assets would return to federal ownership when the agreement ends. Pate said the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission reviewed and endorsed the terms. Pate described a system combining surveillance of aircraft wastewater with air and surface sampling, as well as screening technologies for cargo and baggage. The plan also includes portable diagnostic laboratories at the airports and a National Surveillance Operations Centre to integrate information and coordinate monitoring and...