NCDC Budgets N1.67bn To Combat COVID19

The Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) has revealed that a total sum of N1.671BN was budgeted for coronavirus response within the first 28 days of the outbreak.

This was disclosed by one of the principal officers of NCDC during a press briefing by the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire in Abuja on Friday.

According to NCDC, the fund represents government releases and contributions from partners and is being used to tackle the virus.

The NCDC did not, however, give details about how much had been released to it but confirmed that Aliko Dangote Foundation made a donation of N200 million to the federal government to help in containing the spread of the virus outbreak in the country.

“We have a huge capacity at the airport. With a lot of work going on in Ogun and Lagos state some of the funding that the partners have given is already being used as we have reprogrammed the money in the country toward this response.”

However, the permanent secretary of the ministry of health, Abdulahi Mashi said so far Nigeria has only enjoyed domestic funding, noting that the country was yet to receive the donations from the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) and the World Bank.

He said the guidelines to access the money was “yet to be developed.”

Recall that the IMF announced $50bn funding support for countries hit by COVID19 while the World Bank committed $12bn in aid to developing countries grappling with the spread of the virus.