Nigeria Must Sustain Health Infrastructure To Prevent Outbreak Emergencies — APIN CEO
Dr Jay Osi Samuels, Chief Executive Officer of APIN Public Health Initiatives, has called for sustained investment in healthcare infrastructure, adequate funding, and regular maintenance to strengthen Nigeria’s preparedness for public health emergencies.
Samuels made the call in an interview with Newsmen on the sidelines of the Future of Health Conference 2026 in Abuja, organised by Nigeria Health Watch.
He said Nigeria needed to shift from a reactive approach to outbreak management to a proactive system that prioritises preparedness, maintains health infrastructure, and ensures adequate funding before emergencies occur.
According to him, a well-functioning healthcare system should be capable of responding to unexpected disease outbreaks without having to begin preparations only after a threat emerges.
“If our healthcare system is working optimally, it will be like a Boy Scout, prepared for any outbreak or anything,” he said.
He expressed concern that Nigeria often adopted a reactive approach to healthcare delivery, particularly when confronted with emerging infectious diseases that could develop with little warning.
He said the country needed a fundamental change in its approach to health infrastructure investment, maintenance and service delivery to ensure that facilities remained operational between emergencies.
The APIN chief executive was responding to questions on what Nigeria needed to do differently to strengthen outbreak preparedness, particularly amid concerns about the country’s capacity to respond effectively to public health emergencies despite investments in laboratories and other health facilities.
Samuels observed that investments made during previous emergencies, including the Ebola outbreak and COVID-19 pandemic, had not always translated into sustained operational capacity.
According to him, some infrastructure established or strengthened during those emergencies, particularly at the subnational level, is no longer fully functional.
“Most of them, it’s either at the subnational level; most of them are really not functional,” he said.
He was referring to health infrastructure established or strengthened during previous public health emergencies, including the COVID-19 pandemic and other disease outbreaks.
He stressed that establishing laboratories and other health facilities was not enough if they could not be maintained and kept operational over time.
He said Nigeria needed to ensure that investments in health infrastructure were supported by adequate funding, equipment, trained personnel and regular maintenance.
He identified inadequate health financing as one of the fundamental challenges affecting healthcare delivery in the country.
The APIN chief executive said Nigeria needed to improve its budgetary commitment to healthcare to ensure that public health institutions had the resources required to maintain infrastructure and respond promptly to emergencies.
He called for a reorientation of health financing priorities, stressing that sustainable investment in healthcare delivery was essential to building a resilient system.
Nigeria’s health allocation has consistently remained below the 15 per cent commitment made by African Union leaders under the 2001 Abuja Declaration.
He noted, however, that Nigeria had competent health professionals with the knowledge and expertise required to manage outbreaks and other public health threats.
According to him, the challenge is ensuring that such professionals have the necessary tools and resources to perform their duties effectively.
“The good thing that we have is that we have the people across healthcare that are competent, that know what to do.
But they need to be given the right tools all the time to be able to respond to such issues and even other ones that we don’t even know when they are going to come,” he said.
Samuels added that strengthening preparedness would require a comprehensive approach that combined infrastructure development, adequate financing, maintenance and support for health workers.
He said Nigeria must build a healthcare system capable of anticipating and responding to emerging threats rather than relying primarily on emergency interventions after diseases had begun to spread.
He emphasised that sustained investment would also help ensure that resources committed during previous outbreaks continued to support routine health services and future emergency responses.
NAN reports that his concerns come amid ongoing efforts by the Federal Government to strengthen the country’s laboratory and emergency-response capacity following the regional threat posed by Bundibugyo Ebola virus disease.
In 2025, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) documented investments in Biosafety Level 3 laboratories at the National Reference Laboratory and Central Public Health Laboratory in Lagos.
The facilities are intended to strengthen the country’s capacity to handle high-consequence pathogens and improve outbreak preparedness.
In June 2026, the Federal Government also announced a N10 billion emergency intervention for Ebola preparedness and established a Presidential Task Force on the disease and other emerging public health threats.