* Okays Adetifa as new D-G of NCDC
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the setting up of Health Sector Reform Committee to develop and implement a reform programme for one of the most critical sectors in Nigeria.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, disclosed this through a statement issued in Abuja on Monday.
To be chaired by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, the committee, he said, would collaborate with various State governments and the Federal Capital Territory administration.
He said the establishment of the committee a Health Sector rose from a Review Report developed by a consultant – Vesta Healthcare Partners, and the Federal Ministry of Health.
He noted that the committee would review all healthcare reforms adopted in the past two decades and lessons learnt, and factor them into developing the new health sector reform programme.
He added that the committee, set up for six months, has members drawn from the private and public sector, healthcare management professionals, development partners, representatives from the National Assembly, and the Nigeria Governors Forum.
Other members include Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa; Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire; BPE Director-General, Alex Okoh; and Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, University College London and Director of the UCL Institute for Global Health. Ibrahim Abubakar.
Director-General of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Council Babatunde Irukera will also be in the committee.
Other members of the committee are Betta Edu (Chairman, Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum – representing National Council on Health); President of the Nigeria Medial Association; President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria; President of National Association of the Nigeria Nurses & Midwives, and President of the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria, among others.
Vesta Healthcare Partners as well as Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will serve as resource persons, with observer roles in the committee.
Also on Monday, the president approved the appointment of Dr. Ifedayo Morayo Adetifa as the new Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said Adetifa is replacing Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, who is taking up an appointment with the World Health Organisation (WHO) effective November this year.
Ihekweazu is to resume as the new Assistant Director-General of Health Emergency Intelligence at the WHO and will have his office located in Berlin, Germany.