Buhari Donates $1m to Fight Ebola in Africa

In the spirit of Africa helping Africans in the Ebola recovery and reconstruction, President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, at the International Conference on Africa’s Fight Against Ebola, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, announced a donation of US$1 million to the cause. This is in addition to earlier contributions by Nigeria to stem the disease in the region.

Buhari, who was represented by the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute, used the forum to share Nigeria’s experience in 2014, in rapidly containing the deadly virus. He however pointed out that "Nigeria is not celebrating the end of Ebola in Nigeria until it is totally eliminated from the West African region. This is because the Ebola in one country remains also a threat to another." Therefore, he posited that meeting the challenge is "Crucial to us right now and so we remain committed to support all efforts of the African Union in this fight."

The ECOWAS region, he observed, was the first to take this initiative of establishing a regional Centre for Disease Control in which the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) was designed as the regional centre in recognition of its role in curtailing the spread of the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Nigeria and the region.

He disclosed that Nigeria is supporting research efforts in developing therapies and vaccines against the disease, explaining that these efforts are leading to the development of promising Ebola therapies through various government and private sector partnerships.