The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to strengthening partnerships with private and independent health research institutions to fight existing diseases and prevent future outbreaks across the country.
The Director General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Jide Idris, stated this during a high-level technical visit to the Kano Independent Research Centre Trust in Kano on Wednesday.
He said the NCDC plans to deepen cooperation with KIRCT and other private research institutions to strengthen Nigeria’s health security.
“We are also pushing for more collaborations with various state governments to support them in detecting and controlling factors that could lead to disease outbreaks,” he said.
Idris noted that the agency is working to fast-track collaboration by tapping into local scientific expertise.
“Our plan for collaboration needs to be fast-tracked because we have many scientists across the country. We need to pull them together and encourage them to do work that was hitherto done by people outside Nigeria. It is time we built our local capacity to do these things and showcase them,” he stated.
He commended KIRCT for its modern research facilities and skilled personnel, describing the centre as “an organised institution with dedicated staff.”
“We are going to work together. We will exchange materials, train jointly, link with each other on public health decisions, and see how we can support them,” he added.
Also speaking, the Director-General of KIRCT, Professor Hamisu Salisu, appreciated the NCDC team for the visit.
“He has come, he has seen what we have, and I am very excited that he has a positive impression of our work here,” Prof. Salisu said.
He added that while KIRCT already works with the Kano State public health system, stronger collaboration with the NCDC is needed, especially in handling bio-specimens.
“We are a private entity. We collaborate with the government and with everybody. But for certain sensitive areas, especially deadly infections, we must have the green light from the NCDC because the Centre is the lead agency for health security in this country,” he said.
