General News
Ebola Fight Needs $430m to End Record Outbreak-WHO
More than $430 million will be needed to bring the worst Ebola outbreak on record under control, according to a draft document laying out the World Health Organization’s (WHO) battle strategy.
The plan sets a goal of reversing the trend in new cases within two months, and stopping all transmission in six to nine months.
It requires funding by governments, development banks, the private sector and in-kind contributions, according to the document obtained by Bloomberg News.
The current outbreak, which has killed 1,427 people in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria, may soon exceed all previous Ebola outbreaks combined.
The sum now being sought is six times more than the $71 million the WHO suggested was needed in a plan published less than a month ago.
“There is reason to be concerned about whether the proposed resources would be adequate,” said Barry Bloom, a public health professor at Harvard University who also questioned whether the funds would be made available face enough, and whether the organization’s latest plan would ensure the expertise from WHO that is needed.
“The WHO plans to publish the plan by the end of this week at the earliest and details may change,” said Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the Geneva-based agency. United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon this month appointed health crisis expert David Nabarro to coordinate the UN response.
WHO criticized The European Commission and aid groups including Doctors Without Borders have criticized the WHO for a lack of leadership in coordinating the fight against the outbreak.
Clearly WHO didn’t foresee this outbreak and while the Ebola crisis was clear in March, it didn’t act until August to declare an emergency, Bloom said in an e-mail. J. Stephen Morrison, director of the global health policy center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, had a different view.
The scale of the disease’s devastation goes far beyond what health officials had seen previously, he said in a telephone interview.
“It’s not a question of incompetence or complacency,” according to Morrison, who said the WHO should be able to raise the money needed. It’s the fact we’re catching up with the unknown, and it’s way ahead of us. Treatment centers More than half the cost will be needed for the treatment, isolation and referral centers that are bearing the brunt of the epidemic, according to the WHO plan. Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are among the world’s poorest countries, and weak health systems combined with a lack of experienced health-care workers has contributed to the epidemic, the WHO has said.
“The response at the beginning wasn’t robust enough,” David Heymann, a professor of infectious diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who worked on the first recorded Ebola outbreak in 1976.
It’s a step forward that they’ve made the plans and I’m glad they’re emphasizing rapid containment as a start.
The WHO this month declared Ebola in West Africa a public health emergency of international concern. A separate outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed as many as 13 people, the government in that country said on Monday.
In West Africa, more than 240 health care workers have been infected and 120 have died, the agency said in a statement yesterday. Among them is Abraham Borbor, the deputy chief medical officer of Liberia’s John F. Kennedy Medical Center, who died despite being treated with Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc.’s experimental ZMapp medicine, the nation’s information minister said. Experimental drug Borbor was one of three Liberian health-care workers being treated with ZMapp, the same drug that was used on two American aid workers who were evacuated to the US after being infected in Liberia.
Closely held Mapp, based in San Diego, has said its supply of the drug is exhausted. A British health worker, William Pooley, was flown home for treatment at London’s Royal Free hospital after being infected in Sierra Leone, Public Health England said in a statement on Monday.
Pooley is receiving excellent care, his family said in a statement on the hospital’s website, as it asked everyone to remember those in other parts of the world suffering with Ebola who do not have access to the same health-care facilities as Will.
A Senegalese disease-tracker working with the WHO in Sierra Leone also became infected, making him the first of the agency’s 400 workers in the affected countries to fall ill with the deadly virus, the WHO said. Evolving epidemic The epidemic continues to evolve in alarming ways, with the severely affected countries, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, struggling to control the escalating outbreak against a backdrop of severely compromised health systems, significant deficits in capacity and rampant fear, according to the draft of the WHO’s so-called road map.
Clearly a massively scaled and coordinated international response is needed to support affected and at-risk countries. The document has been shared with the WHO’s partners for comment and will be published once their feedback has been received, Chaib said.
The final document will include a country- by-country plan for dealing with the outbreak, she said. Bloomberg
Nigeria’s Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market is on a fast-growing trajectory and is predicted to be valued $2.61 billion by 2030, up 83% from $1.42 billion in 2024, owing primarily to the rapid emergence of fintechs in the country.
This observation was stated in EnterpriseNGR’s State of Enterprise 2025 report, which focuses on how fintechs are reshaping Nigeria’s business landscape through digital innovations, accessible credit systems, and mobile-first financial tools.
As a credit system, BNPL allows users to stagger payments for products and services, making it a key development driver in Nigeria’s developing digital economy.
From 2021 to 2024, the BNPL experienced a compounded annual growth rate of 23.1%. Fintechs have contributed to the rapid growth by providing a range of flexible loan alternatives for e-commerce, retail, and services, bridging financial gaps for millions of disadvantaged Nigerians.
The report highlights how fintechs have contributed to Nigeria’s flexibility and resiliency by simplifying digital payments, automating invoicing and payroll systems, and democratising credit through platforms such as Renmoney and FairMoney.
The report also shows a significant rise in remittance inflows into Nigeria following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s 2024 policy adjustments.
According to the report, by 2024, Nigeria boasted over 400 licensed digital lenders who extend collateral-free credit to those commonly excluded by banks.
The Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) strengthened bilateral relations with the Netherlands’ government through an agreement targeted at improving migration governance and border security.
This partnership was confirmed during a meeting at the NIS headquarters in Abuja, which was attended by a Dutch team led by Jurgen Bartelink, Chargé D’Affaires of the Embassy of the Netherlands in Nigeria.
The meeting focused on increasing bilateral migration cooperation and came after the comptroller general of Immigration, Kemi Nandap, paid a working visit to the Netherlands.
Under the agreement, the Dutch government pledged to continue supporting technology-driven solutions targeted at boosting Nigeria’s border control systems and improving migration management.
During the Netherlands Embassy diplomats handed over essential operational tools, such as Edison Software licence keys and the Passport Examination Programme Manual App.
According to NIS spokeswoman ACI Akinsola Akinlabi, “The partnership focuses on enhancing bilateral collaboration on migration management and reviewing ongoing capacity-building efforts.”
Bartelink, Chargé d’Affaires of the Netherlands Embassy in Nigeria, underlined the Netherlands’ commitment to helping Nigeria’s continuing border security and migration reforms.
Also speaking, Rob Bokhoven, head of international affairs, repatriation, and deportation services at the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security, emphasised the country’s strong bilateral relations and announced plans to share a mobile border software solution with the NIS.
Receiving the equipment, Nandap said the delivery of the gadgets would boost West African country’s border security, significantly improve the service’s document verification border management capabilities and support the implementation of Nigeria’s National Migration Policy.
“The engagement will further reinforce the strategic partnership between Nigeria and the Netherlands advancing shared goals in migration governance, border security and international cooperation,” she added.
Peter Enogb, principal country economist, African Development Bank (AfDB), says the rise in global uncertainty, emanating from increases in global trade tariffs, has slowed Nigeria’s projected growth to 3.2% in 2025.
“Without this level of heightened uncertainty, our projections would probably have been somewhat higher. We’ve reduced our projections for Nigeria. We initially were projecting 3.5% – 3.6% growth in 2025.
“But given the current situation, our models are showing that we’re taking a more cautious approach. So that’s why we produced this and, of course, the main driver is uncertainty in the global economy,” Enogb said.
He said this at the launch of the 2025 Nigeria Country Focus Report (CFR) on Thursday.
AFDB projected that real GDP growth would hit 3.1% in 2026. Following the 2024 consumer price index (CPI) rebasing, with lower weights for food items, the inflation rate is expected to reduce over the medium term to 24.7% in 2025 and 17.3% in 2026.
As imports start to rise over the medium term, the current account is projected to decline to 3.9% of GDP in 2026.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reported that Nigeria’s headline inflation slowed for the second consecutive month to 22.97% in May. This is down from 24.48% at the start of the year
This is contrary to the World Bank projection that Nigeria’s economy would record steady growth of 3.6% despite the shift in the global trade dynamics.
Joseph Ogebe, head of research and development at Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), also said that global uncertainty had been very high in recent times, resulting from the Trump 2.0 effect.
“And also with the recent war between Israel and the international community, we’ve seen what’s happening to oil prices. Even with the call-off of the war, we’ve seen the effect on oil prices too, which has implications on the fiscal side. So it has implications for the general economy,” he said.
The head of research at NESG said that rather than focusing on just growth, what should be looked at is a strategy called growth with depth.
“Growth with depth means that your growth must be diversified, export-led, productive, and technologically driven,” he said.
Ogebe said that if the Government works towards adopting a strategy of growth with depth, there is a tendency for the government to move towards its goal of achieving a $1 trillion economy by 2030.
The report revealed that the country’s recent policy moves, including fuel subsidy removal, exchange rate unification, and tax reforms, reflect a commitment to long-term transformation.
However, it also pointed out that at about 13%, Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio is among the lowest in West Africa, noting that fiscal reforms are urgent.
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