NCDC: ₦10bn fund covers many diseases, not Ebola alone
- NCDC chief Jide Idris says the ₦10bn emergency fund was never meant for Ebola alone.
- He says the money went to the agency, not the presidential Ebola task force.
- Idris says Nigeria needs about ₦104.4bn a year for health security, so ₦10bn is about 2%.
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has moved to clear up confusion over the ₦10bn emergency fund approved by President Bola Tinubu, saying the money was never meant for Ebola alone.
NCDC Director-General Dr Jide Idris said in a statement on Monday that the fund is for preparing and responding to several epidemic-prone diseases. These include Ebola, Lassa fever, cholera, cerebrospinal meningitis, diphtheria, measles, monkeypox and antimicrobial resistance.
The clarification follows public debate over the allocation, after Nigeria confirmed an imported case of Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease on October 20, 2026.
Where the money went
Idris said the ₦10bn was released directly to the NCDC, not to the Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease, which is chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President. The task force, he said, was set up to coordinate the national response, while the agency handles the wider health security work.
He said President Tinubu approved the money in June 2026, when the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo became a global emergency. According to him, the request covered all of Nigeria's epidemic-prone diseases, not just Ebola.
The NCDC boss also gave a breakdown of the agency's funding: ₦4bn in 2024, ₦7bn in 2025 plus a ₦5bn intervention fund that year, and ₦22bn in the 2026 Appropriation.
He said that on Sunday, October 25, 2026, he had told journalists the ₦10bn had not yet reached the agency, but he did not say when it was eventually released.
Why ₦10bn is small, according to NCDC
Idris said the money is far short of what Nigeria needs. The National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS 2.0), which runs from 2025 to 2029, will cost about ₦522bn over five years, or roughly ₦104.4bn a year.
That means the ₦10bn is about two per cent of the average yearly cost, he said. "The N10 billion allocation remains inadequate to meet Nigeria's broader health security needs," Idris said in the statement.
He also cited the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, which estimates that a country needs $1 to $2 per person each year to be acceptably prepared for epidemics. For about 240 million Nigerians, that comes to $240m to $480m a year.
Idris said the debate should move away from politics and towards steady funding for health security, warning that the cost of failing to prepare could be far higher than the cost of prevention.
What happens next
On Ebola, Idris said Nigeria has no active case at the moment. Contacts of the imported case are being monitored daily until the last one completes the required 21-day watch without symptoms.
He said the current situation does not justify postponing elections, restricting travel or banning mass gatherings. Instead, the NCDC has issued guidelines for event organisers on infection prevention and control.
He urged Nigerians not to spread unverified information, saying misinformation and the politicisation of public health emergencies can weaken the response.