General News
NCDC Says Lagos, FCT, Others on High Ebola Alert
Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has placed Lagos, the Federal Capital Territory and several other states on high Ebola alert following the outbreak of the deadly Bundibugyo strain of Ebola Virus Disease in parts of East and Central Africa.
In a national public health advisory issued to Commissioners for Health across the country, the agency warned that Nigeria faces a high risk of importing the virus due to increasing regional transmission, international travel, porous borders, and population movement.
The advisory, dated May 27, 2026, comes amid growing concerns over the spread of the Bundibugyo variant of Ebola, a rare strain for which there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment.
States classified by the NCDC as high-risk include Lagos, the FCT, Rivers, Kano, Enugu, Borno, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Taraba, and Adamawa because of their international airports, seaports, border routes and high human traffic.
“The immediate objective of our national preparedness and readiness efforts is to ensure that every State and the FCT can reasonably detect, contain, and respond swiftly to any suspected case while protecting health workers and sustaining essential health services,” the NCDC stated.
The agency disclosed that although Nigeria has not recorded any confirmed case, a dynamic risk assessment conducted after the outbreak was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern showed that the danger of importation into Nigeria remains high.
According to the NCDC, 1,077 suspected cases and 247 deaths have already been reported in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, with a fatality rate of 24.6 per cent.
It added that the outbreak has also triggered international concern, with suspected cases reportedly identified in India, while Canada announced temporary restrictions on travel applications involving residents of Uganda, DRC and South Sudan.
Uganda has also reportedly introduced border closure measures to contain the spread.
The NCDC stressed that the Bundibugyo strain differs from the Zaire Ebola strain, which existing vaccines and antibody treatments primarily target.
“The current Bundibugyo virus outbreak has no licensed vaccines or approved targeted therapeutics,” the advisory warned.
Health officials also cautioned that Ebola symptoms could initially resemble malaria, Lassa fever, or other common illnesses, making early detection more difficult.
“Health workers must not wait for bleeding before suspecting Ebola in any patient with compatible symptoms and relevant travel or exposure history,” the agency said.
The NCDC noted that Ebola is not airborne and spreads mainly through direct contact with infected blood, body fluids, contaminated materials, or infected animals.
As part of emergency preparedness measures, the agency said its National Emergency Operations Centre has already been activated in alert mode to coordinate nationwide response efforts.
State governments were directed to immediately activate Ebola preparedness structures, identify isolation centres, intensify surveillance at entry points, equip frontline health workers with personal protective equipment and begin public sensitisation campaigns to counter panic and misinformation.
The agency also asked states to submit readiness reports within 72 hours.
Nigeria’s renewed Ebola alert has revived memories of the country’s successful containment of the virus during the 2014 outbreak, when an infected Liberian-American traveller, Patrick Sawyer, arrived in Lagos and exposed dozens of people before authorities intervened.
At the time, public health experts feared a catastrophic outbreak in Lagos due to its dense population and status as one of Africa’s busiest commercial hubs.
However, rapid contact tracing, aggressive isolation measures, emergency coordination and public awareness campaigns helped Nigeria stop the spread within months.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) later praised Nigeria’s response as one of the most effective Ebola containment efforts in Africa.
The latest alert is considered particularly serious because the Bundibugyo variant remains less understood than the more common Zaire strain.
Unlike the Zaire strain, which has approved vaccines and treatments developed after previous West African outbreaks, the Bundibugyo strain currently lacks licensed countermeasures.
Public health experts have long warned that Nigeria’s heavy air traffic, extensive land borders, crowded urban centres and overstretched healthcare system leave the country vulnerable during regional disease outbreaks.
The warning also comes as Nigeria continues to battle multiple infectious disease outbreaks, including Lassa fever, cholera, and meningitis in several states, increasing pressure on the healthcare system.
Health authorities are now urging Nigerians to remain calm, avoid rumours and fake cures, maintain proper hygiene and report suspected symptoms early as surveillance and preparedness measures intensify nationwide.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery is reportedly nearing completion of a $2.5 billion private placement that values the company at about $40 billion ahead of its planned public listing.
Private placement is the direct sale of company shares or bonds to pre-selected investors instead of the general public and it is used to raise money quickly while avoiding strict public reporting rules.
People familiar with the transaction said investors acquired as much as 6 per cent of the refinery, according to a BusinessDay report.
The reported terms would value the business at approximately $40 billion.
Neither Dangote Group nor the refinery has publicly announced the final amount raised, the identities of most subscribers or the precise percentage sold.
The figures should therefore be treated as transaction details supplied by unnamed sources rather than confirmed company disclosures.
The reported $2.5 billion total is nevertheless significant as it indicates strong demand for exposure to a privately controlled refinery that has rapidly become central to Nigeria’s fuel supply and an increasingly important exporter of petroleum products.
The placement was said to have attracted more demand than the available shares, allowing the company to secure substantially more than the amount initially associated with the fundraising exercise.
Femi Otedola, chairman, First HoldCo, is the only major participant publicly identified in the report.
He reportedly committed $100 million to the transaction and sold his investment in Geregu Power Plc to finance the acquisition.
Nigeria’s pension industry was also reportedly cleared to participate.
Access to more than $17 billion in retirement assets would broaden the refinery’s potential investor base beyond wealthy individuals and conventional institutional buyers.
Participation by Pension Fund Administrators would, however, require careful attention to valuation, liquidity and portfolio-concentration limits.
Retirement funds must balance the attraction of a large Nigerian industrial asset against their responsibility to protect contributors’ savings.
The implied $40 billion valuation represents investor expectations about the refinery’s future earnings rather than only the physical cost of constructing the facility.
Its ability to process 650,000 barrels of crude daily gives it a central role in supplying Nigeria and other markets, but its commercial performance remains connected to crude availability, product prices, exchange rates and regulation.
The refinery has struggled to obtain all the Nigerian crude it requires under the government’s naira-for-crude arrangement.
It has consequently purchased some feedstock internationally and recently moved local petroleum-product pricing into dollars to align sales revenue more closely with its foreign-currency expenses.
Those constraints will be important during any public offering.
Prospective shareholders will want greater clarity on crude-supply contracts, debt, operating margins, export revenue and the company’s relationship with Nigerian regulators.
It is also unclear whether the private placement involved newly issued shares, a sale by existing owners or a combination of both.
That distinction determines whether the reported $2.5 billion becomes fresh capital for the refinery or proceeds received by selling shareholders.
The transaction could provide a useful price reference for the planned initial public offering.
Federal government will next month launch Nigeria’s first national organized crime strategy to strengthen the country’s response to terrorism, cybercrime, human and drug trafficking, kidnapping, illicit financial flows, and other forms of organized crime.
Major General Adamu Laka, national coordinator of the National Counter Terrorism Centre under the Office of the National Security Adviser, disclosed this in Abuja during the validation of the strategy document.
He said the strategy provides a coordinated national framework for tackling organized crime through improved intelligence sharing, stronger collaboration among security agencies, and closer cooperation with the criminal justice system, civil society organizations, and international partners.
Major General Laka explained that the document was developed through a partnership involving the Federal Government, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the United States Government, and other stakeholders.
Speaking at the event, Cheikh Toure, UNODC representative, said the strategy would strengthen Nigeria’s capacity to combat transnational crimes, including drug trafficking, cybercrime, human trafficking, kidnapping, and illicit financial flows.
Also speaking, Douglas Grane, acting director of the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, reaffirmed the U.S. government’s support for Nigeria’s efforts to tackle organized crime through stronger inter-agency and international cooperation.
Representatives of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit, and the National Cyber Security Centre also endorsed the initiative, describing it as a major step towards improving Nigeria’s fight against organized crime.
FATE Foundation, with funding from the Citi Foundation, has launched the Youth Entrepreneurship Incubation Programme to equip young people in Nigeria with financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills.
Delivered through free, safe, and accessible platforms, the programme supports the incubation and scaling of youth-led enterprises, enabling income generation and job creation.
In October 2025, FATE Foundation was selected as a recipient of Citi Foundation’s 2025 Global Innovation Challenge to Accelerate Youth Employability. Joining the cohort of 50 organisations globally, the Foundation will receive $500,000 over two years to advance its youth employability initiative.
“We are excited to be selected for Citi Foundation’s 2025 Global Innovation Challenge,” said Ayomide Akindolie-Igwe, Executive Director of FATE Foundation.
“This support enables us to equip young entrepreneurs in Nigeria with the financial literacy and skills needed to build and scale sustainable businesses.”
The programme addresses youth employability by tackling Africa’s growing jobs crisis. By 2030, the African continent will be home to 40% of the world’s youth, and with one in three under 35 already unemployed, this initiative will support Nigerian youth with a two-phase approach. It begins with financial literacy training before progressing to entrepreneurship development, incubation support, and access to tools needed to build viable, job-creating businesses.
“Through this innovative initiative, FATE Foundation is supporting low-income Nigerian youth to develop essential financial and entrepreneurial skills using accessible platforms.
“This support is not just helping individuals to succeed; it is building a solid foundation for sustainable enterprises that will drive job creation and contribute significantly to our nation’s economic vitality. This initiative is empowering and investing in the future of Nigeria, one youth at a time,” said Nneka Enwereji, MD/CEO Citibank Nigeria Limited.
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