By Raymond Ken-Mbata
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has clarified that the Federal Government’s ₦10 billion emergency intervention fund was not intended exclusively for Ebola response but to strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness against multiple public health threats.
The Director-General of NCDC, Dr. Jide Idris, made the clarification on Monday, November 2, 2026, amid public concerns over the allocation, explaining that the money was released directly to the agency and not the Presidential Task Force on Ebola chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
Idris said the intervention was designed to support prevention, early detection, preparedness and rapid response to diseases including Lassa fever, cholera, cerebrospinal meningitis, diphtheria, measles, monkeypox and antimicrobial resistance. He added that the funding would also strengthen disease surveillance, laboratory diagnosis, emergency coordination and response capacity.
The NCDC chief, however, described the allocation as inadequate compared with the country’s health security requirements. He disclosed that implementing the National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS 2.0), covering 2025 to 2029, would require approximately ₦522 billion, representing an average annual requirement of ₦104.4 billion. He said the ₦10 billion intervention represented only about two per cent of the annual requirement.
Providing a breakdown of government funding, Idris said the NCDC’s budgetary allocation increased from ₦4 billion in 2024 to ₦7 billion in 2025, while the 2026 Appropriation provided ₦22 billion. The Federal Government had also approved a separate ₦5 billion intervention in 2025 before President Bola Tinubu authorised the additional ₦10 billion in June 2026.
He called for sustained investment from federal and state governments as well as development partners, warning that inadequate preparedness could expose the country to greater health and economic consequences during disease outbreaks. He also urged public commentators to avoid spreading misinformation about emergency health funding, stressing that national health security should not be reduced to partisan disagreements.
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