By Haruna Gimba
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Dr Ifedayo Adetifa as the Director-General of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).
The appointment was announced in a statement issued by the presidency on Monday.
The new NCDC DG replaces Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, who was recently appointed as an assistant director-general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in charge of health emergency intelligence.
According to his profile on the website of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Adetifa, a paediatrician and infectious diseases epidemiologist, got his first degree from the University of Ilorin in Kwara state.
“He received undergraduate medical training at the University of Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria and completed residency training in Paediatrics at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba, Lagos, Nigeria for which he was awarded the Fellowship of the West Africa College of Physicians in Paediatrics,” the profile reads.
Dr Adetifa also studied for the MSc in Epidemiology at the School and got my PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
According to the statement by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, Adetifa has also been named a member of the health sector reform committee, which will be chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the setting up of a Health Sector Reform Committee to commence the development and implementation of a Health Sector Reform programme for Nigeria in collaboration with the State Governments and the FCT administration,” the statement reads.
“This is sequel to a Health Sector Diagnostic Review Report developed by a consultant, Vesta Healthcare Partners and the Federal Ministry of Health.
“The committee will undertake a review of all healthcare reforms adopted in the past two decades and lessons learnt and factor them into the development of the new Health Sector Reform Programme.”
