The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has clarified that the ?10 billion emergency intervention fund approved by President Bola Tinubu was intended to strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness for multiple epidemic-prone diseases not Ebola alone.
The clarification follows public misconception over the fund amid Nigeria’s response to its first imported case of Ebola in 12 years with the agency’s Director-General Dr Jide Idris warning against misinformation and the politicisation of public health emergencies.
In a statement Idris said the funding was requested to strengthen the prevention preparedness early detection and rapid response capacity for diseases of public health importance including Ebola Lassa fever cholera cerebrospinal meningitis diphtheria measles mpox and antimicrobial resistance.
‘Was ?10 billion released to NCDC? Yes’ Idris said adding that the money was not released to the Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President.
‘The PTF was established primarily to coordinate the national response. The ?10 billion in question was released to NCDC to address the broader health security needs outlined above’ he said.
Idris said the fund was approved in June 2026 as the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo became a global emergency and was intended to reinforce health security efforts already underway with government and development partners.
He said the funding should be assessed against Nigeria’s wider health security needs rather than the response to a single disease.
‘The ?10 billion allocation remains inadequate to meet Nigeria’s broader health security needs’ he said.
According to the NCDC chief Nigeria’s second National Action Plan for Health Security covering 2025 to 2029 is estimated to cost about ?522 billion over five years or an average of ?104.4 billion annually.
Although not all the plan’s activities are funded through the NCDC he said the figures illustrate the scale of investment required to protect the country against public health threats.
The ?10 billion intervention fund represents about two per cent of the plan’s average annual cost Idris said arguing that it should not be portrayed as excessive without considering the range of activities it is meant to support.
‘The discussion should not be whether Nigeria can afford to invest adequately in health security but whether it can afford the human social and economic consequences of failing to do so’ he said.
Idris added that the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board estimates that countries need between $1 and $2 per person annually to achieve an acceptable level of epidemic preparedness.
For Nigeria’s population of about 240 million he said this translates to between $240 million and $480 million annually underscoring the need for sustained funding from federal and state governments and development partners.
He noted that the NCDC’s allocation increased from ?4 billion in 2024 to ?7 billion in 2025 followed by a ?5 billion intervention fund that year.
The 2026 Appropriation provides ?22 billion while the additional ?10 billion was approved as emergency intervention funding in June.
Idris said health security was the fourth pillar of the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative the Federal Government’s sector-wide approach to improving healthcare.
He attributed persistent funding gaps partly to the tendency to prioritise visible interventions over prevention which can be harder to measure despite its potential to avert deaths contain outbreaks and prevent economic losses.
On the current Ebola situation Idris said Nigeria confirmed the imported Bundibugyo virus disease case in its laboratory on October 20 within 24 hours of receiving an alert in Abuja.
He said all identified contacts were being monitored daily and that Nigeria had no active case at the time of the statement.
‘Every contact is under daily watch and there is no active case today’ he said.
However he cautioned that surveillance would continue until the last identified contact completed the 21-day monitoring period without a new case emerging among the contacts or elsewhere in the country.
‘We are not yet out of the woods’ he said assuring Nigerians that the agency would continue to provide updates on the response and emerging findings.
Idris also said the situation did not warrant postponing elections banning mass gatherings or political campaigns or restricting travel adding that the NCDC had not recommended any of those measures.
‘Instead we have developed technical guidelines for all organisers of mass gatherings. With strict adherence to infection prevention and control and safety protocols events can go ahead safely and we can hold each other accountable’ he said.
He added that the agency would revise its advice if new evidence justified a change.
‘NCDC is a technical agency. Our advice follows the evidence alone. We will not be drawn into politics and we ask everyone to keep public health out of it’ Idris said.
He urged Nigerians to verify information through the NCDC’s official channels before sharing it warning that rumours and panic could undermine public trust and the national response.
‘Ebola is a health threat not a political tool and science not rumour will lead this response’ he said.
Idris called on policymakers the media and development partners to focus on securing sustainable and accountable funding for the NCDC and Nigeria’s wider health security system.
He pledged transparency in the use of the intervention fund saying the agency remained committed to protecting the health of all Nigerians.