Nigerian Centre for Disease Control Gets New Director-General

Pat Stevens/

President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed a new director-general for the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

Buhari also approved the establishment of a health sector reform committee to oversee the development and implementation of a health sector reform programme for Nigeria.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement today.

According to the statement, the committee will undertake a review of all healthcare reforms adopted in the past two decades and lessons learnt and factor them into the development of the new Health Sector Reform Programme.

The statement says Buhari also named Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo as the chairman of the committee with members drawn from the public and private sector.

It also revealed that Vesta Healthcare Partners and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will serve as resources persons and have observer roles in the committee.

The statement reads, “President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the setting up of a Health Sector Reform Committee to commence the development and implementation of a Health Sector Reform Programme for Nigeria in collaboration with the State Governments and the FCT administration.

“This is sequel to a Health Sector Diagnostic Review Report developed by a consultant, Vesta Healthcare Partners and the Federal Ministry of Health.

“The committee will undertake a review of all healthcare reforms adopted in the past two decades and lessons learnt and factor them into the development of the new Health Sector Reform Programme.

“The committee which is set up for a period of six months under the Chairmanship of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has members drawn from private and public sector health care management professionals, development partners, representatives from the National Assembly as well as the Nigeria Governors Forum among others.

“Meanwhile, President Buhari has also approved the appointment of Dr Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa as the new Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The President has named him as a member of this important committee.”

The position had become vacant following the recent appointment of Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu as an assistant director-general of the global health body – World Health Organisation (WHO).

The outgoing NCDC boss is expected to resume at his new office in Germany on November 1, 2021.

Adetifa, an associate professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, obtained his medical degree at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), Kwara State, Nigeria.

He trained in Paediatrics and Child Health at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and received the Fellowship of the West Africa College of Physicians in Paediatrics in 2005.

He studied Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and was awarded his MSc by the University of London in 2009. He got his PhD from the University of Amsterdam in 2012 for research in Tuberculosis Epidemiology. His research interests are in vaccine impact/effectiveness studies, innovative approaches/surveillance tools for monitoring vaccination, tuberculosis epidemiology, and evidence synthesis including systematic reviews.

Adetifa was awarded the MRC/DFID African Research Leader Fellowship in 2018, and he is a member of both the Kenyan National Immunisation Coordinating Committee and the World Health Organisation, Africa Region’s (WHO-AFRO) Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group.

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