FEC approves ₦45.8bn airport disease surveillance after Ebola case

Nigeria will spend ₦45.8 billion on a biosecurity and disease surveillance system at five international airports, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) said after its meeting on Wednesday, presided over by President Bola Tinubu.

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Ali Pate, told State House reporters the system is meant to catch Ebola and other dangerous diseases at the country's borders before they spread inland.

The airports are Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano, Port Harcourt International Airport and Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu.

Pate said more than 18 million passengers pass through Nigerian airports every year, which makes screening at entry points a national health and economic issue.

What the system will do

The project will run as a 20-year public-private partnership awarded to BioHealth Consortium. The private partner will design, finance, build, operate and maintain the facilities, while the government provides oversight. The assets are to return to the Federal Government at the end of the concession, under an agreement reviewed by the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission.

It will include wastewater surveillance to detect pathogens linked to aircraft, air and surface sampling equipment, and technology to monitor cargo and baggage. Modern laboratories for rapid diagnosis will sit at the entry points, and a National Surveillance Operations Centre will coordinate real-time monitoring.

Operations will be tied to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), Port Health Services, the Nigeria Customs Service, the Nigeria Immigration Service and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

Pate said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in how Nigeria handles health threats crossing its borders. He said lessons from the country's recent response to an imported Ebola case also shaped the plan.

The patient, confirmed in October, recovered after treatment in Nigeria and is said to be improving in her home country. Pate warned the threat remains, pointing to the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Contacts of the patient are on 21 days of quarantine, matching Ebola's incubation period of two to 21 days. The government is giving them ₦100,000 support, which Pate defended as a way to keep people from breaking quarantine to earn a living.

"If you ask them to stay in quarantine, they have a livelihood and a family. They may find ways to evade it, and that will put everybody at risk," he said.

He said the support is limited and would not apply if there were community transmission.

Power debts and grid projects

At the same briefing, the Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, said the Federal Government has paid ₦1.2 trillion of the ₦2.3 trillion owed to electricity operators. The payment is meant to ease liquidity problems and improve gas supply to generating companies.

He said the government wants to raise transmission capacity from about 5,000 megawatts to more than 19,000 megawatts, against available generation of over 13,000 megawatts.

FEC approved three transmission projects: an upgrade of the Katampe substation in the North-Central, three 300-megavolt-ampere transformers for the Egbin substation serving Lagos, and the rebuilding of a 35.6-kilometre line along the Shagamu axis from single to double circuit.

Tegbe also said 14 federal universities now have solar mini-grids of one to five megawatts, with 11 more institutions funded through TETFund, and that work has begun on a new National Control Centre in Osogbo, Osun State.

What happens next: The airport surveillance project moves into its concession phase, while health authorities continue monitoring the Ebola contacts through their 21-day quarantine.