…Says Fund Covers Multiple Disease Threats not Just Ebola
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has said the Federal Government’s N10 billion emergency intervention fund approved in June 2026 amid the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was not meant for Ebola alone.
The agency said the fund was intended to strengthen the country’s preparedness against multiple disease threats of public health importance.
The agency’s Director-General, Dr Jide Idris, disclosed this in a statement on Monday while addressing questions surrounding the allocation, which attracted public attention following Nigeria’s confirmation of an imported Ebola case in October.
Idris said the funding was requested to improve prevention, preparedness, early detection, rapid response and recovery for diseases of public health importance, including Ebola, Lassa fever, cholera, cerebrospinal meningitis, diphtheria, measles, monkeypox and antimicrobial resistance.
He said the N10 billion was released directly to the NCDC and not the Presidential Task Force on Ebola, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
“Was the money released to the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on EVD, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President? No. The PTF was established primarily to coordinate the national response. The N10 billion in question was released to NCDC to address the broader health security needs outlined above,” Idris said.
“It is unfortunate that political actors sometimes fail to distinguish responsible opposition from calumny and, in some cases, outright mischief. Health security is a matter of national security and should not be reduced to partisan contestation. Politicians and other public commentators must avoid fuelling infodemics, particularly during public health emergencies when accurate information and public trust are indispensable,” he added.
N10bn Represents Two Per Cent Of Annual Requirement
The NCDC chief said the allocation was inadequate when compared with the country’s broader health security needs, explaining that Nigeria requires an estimated N104.4 billion annually to implement its National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) 2.0.
He said that the five-year plan, which runs from 2025 to 2029, has an estimated implementation cost of N522 billion.
Idris said the N10 billion intervention fund represented approximately two per cent of the plan’s average annual cost, adding that the funding should not be viewed as excessive without considering the scale of Nigeria’s health security requirements.
“The estimated cost of implementing NAPHS 2.0 alone is approximately N522 billion over five years. This translates to an average of about N104.4 billion annually. Although not all NAPHS activities are funded through NCDC, this figure illustrates the scale of investment required to protect Nigerians against public health threats.
“The comparison is instructive: N10 billion represents about two percent of the plan’s average annual cost. It should therefore not be presented as an excessive allocation without considering the scale of Nigeria’s health security needs and the range of activities it is intended to support,” the NCDC DG added.
NCDC Allocation Rises To N22bn
Meanwhile, Idris said the agency’s budgetary allocation increased from N4 billion in 2024 to N7 billion in 2025, while the 2026 Appropriation provides N22 billion.
He added that the Federal Government also approved a N5 billion intervention fund in 2025 before President Bola Tinubu authorised the additional N10 billion in June 2026, as the Ebola outbreak in the DRC became a global emergency.
However, he said the funding gap remained substantial, citing estimates by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board that a country requires between $1 and $2 per person annually to achieve acceptable epidemic preparedness.
“For about 240 million Nigerians, that is US$240 million to US$480 million a year. Sustained investment from government, States and partners will close that gap,” he said.
The Director-General cautioned against spreading misinformation about the intervention fund, describing health security as a national responsibility that should not be reduced to partisan contestation.
He said the Presidential Task Force was established primarily to coordinate the national Ebola response, while the NCDC received the N10 billion to address wider health security requirements.
Idris also called for transparency and accountability in the management of public health resources, insisting that sustained investment was necessary to prevent outbreaks from escalating into emergencies capable of disrupting livelihoods, overwhelming health facilities and imposing greater economic costs on the country.
He maintained that the discussion should not be whether Nigeria could afford to invest adequately in health security, but whether it could afford the human, social and economic consequences of failing to do so.
Nigeria confirmed its first imported case of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola on October 20, 2026, after a 42-year-old woman who had travelled from Uganda tested positive in Abuja.
Health authorities activated contact tracing, surveillance, quarantine and monitoring measures.
The index patient, who was clinically improved, stable and conscious, was evacuated to Switzerland on October 26 alongside her husband.
The NCDC identified 62 contacts, with monitoring expected to run until November 13.
