(NIGERIA) The African Development Bank Group has announced a grant of
$60 million to Nigeria and three other West African countries to fight the
Ebola Virus Disease outbreak.
The President of the bank, Donald Kaberuka, and the World
Health Organisation Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Luis Sambo, on Tuesday,
signed a Memorandum of Understanding sealing a $60 million bank grant to
strengthen West Africa’s public health systems in response to the Ebola crisis.
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In a statement issued on Wednesday on the bank’s website,
the funds, which will be implemented by the WHO, will be used to help recruit
and train health workers, purchase equipment and medicine, and ensure that the
necessary logistics are in place at the local level to provide emergency health
services to Ebola patients.
As of Monday, 2,615 cases of Ebola have been recorded since
March, resulting in 1,427 deaths in Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
“The Ebola crisis has shown the weakness of our health
systems. When we have vanquished Ebola, there will be other challenges, and we
must be better prepared. This concerns us all: Ebola has no passport; it
respects no borders,” Kaberuka said.
According to the AfDB president, the outbreak is a dynamic
epidemic and that the bank will spend a further sum of $150 million to fight
the EVD.
He said, “This is why – on top of this work with the WHO –
the AfDB will invest an additional $150 million to assist its regional member
governments through budget support operations in order to pay health workers,
equip health centres, and create jobs. In the long term we want to tackle the
root causes of the epidemic and strengthen health systems in Africa, because it
threatens the economic situation of countries.
“According to recent estimates, these countries may lose 1.5%
of GDP due to this epidemic. Even if the WHO has not imposed any travel
restrictions, private airlines have banned international travel to and from the
affected countries, impacting tourism and trade.”
Speaking on the signed MoU, the WHO regional director for
Africa described the virus outbreak as a bitter reminder to Nigerian and other
African governments to improve on their public health system.
Sambo said, “The ongoing Ebola Virus Disease outbreak is a
bitter reminder to all African Governments and partners on the need to
strengthen health infrastructure capacities in order to cope with disasters and
epidemics. This MoU will cover the immediate response needs as well as help to
strengthen the health systems capacity .
Since April, the AfDB has disbursed $3 million to support
regional Ebola response efforts. It has also made four emergency assistance
grants of $ 1 million each to the governments of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone
and Nigeria. (PUNCH)
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