The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, on Wednesday contradicted the Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, on the payment of N620 million to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), an amount budgeted for the emergency response to novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Contrary to the announcement that the money had been paid to the agency in full, the lawmaker stressed that no kobo was released. He, therefore, asked the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to immediately release the money to the health agency.
The minister, at a press briefing in Abuja on Friday last week, said the Federal Government had released every fund needed by the Port Health Services and the NCDC, which he described as the nation’s first and second lines of defence for coronavirus.
According to him, the Port Health Services received about N70 million while the NCDC got N620 million. Ehanire admitted that Nigeria used to have very little quantity of reagents to diagnose coronavirus, but the supply of the substances has been improved.
