President Bola Tinubu has approved a Presidential Task Force on Ebola and released N10 billion in emergency funding to intercept potential disease importation following regional outbreaks.
In a proactive move to safeguard national health security, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the establishment of the Presidential Task Force on Ebola Virus Disease Preparedness and Emerging Public Health Threats.
To ensure immediate operational velocity, the President ordered the direct release of N10 billion in emergency intervention funding.
The rapid fiscal intervention is engineered to bolster the structural readiness of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and support comprehensive disease surveillance, cross-border containment, and emergency health activities across the federation.
The high-level announcement was contained in an official statement released on Tuesday in Abuja by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga. The strategic intervention follows confirmed reports of a resurgence of the deadly Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda.
The newly formed Presidential Task Force will be chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila. Its membership is drawn from frontline federal Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs), alongside critical sub-national state representatives.
“The fund will strengthen the operational preparedness of the National Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) and support critical national public health emergency response activities,” the presidency detailed.
The executive approval was the direct outcome of an emergency inter-agency stakeholder meeting convened at the State House to review Nigeria’s epidemiological vulnerabilities. The council brought together leadership from the Ministry of Interior, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), and the Lagos State Government.
To ensure a unified defense line, President Tinubu has directed all state governors hosting international airports or sharing international land borders to immediately submit comprehensive preparedness blueprints, logistics requirements, and localized funding needs to the task force for coordinated execution.
The Task Force has been given expansive regulatory mandates over inbound aviation logistics. The President directed the advisory body to actively collaborate with national security, diplomatic, and civil aviation organizations to strictly regulate flights arriving from high-risk geopolitical zones.
Aviation screening will be intensified for passengers arriving via key regional carriers, including Air Uganda, RwandAir, Air Tanzania, Air Angola, Kenya Airways, and Ethiopian Airlines.
Furthermore, the task force is empowered to designate isolated terminals specifically for processing high-risk flights.
This spatial segregation, coupled with the potential rescheduling of specific flight arrival windows, is designed to entirely eliminate physical interactions between high-risk transit passengers and the general public.
Additionally, deep environmental decontamination protocols will be enforced across airport departure halls, cargo areas, and baggage bays nationwide to maintain sterile transit environments.
Visit GMTNewsng for more news stories.