Nigeria pays Ebola contacts ₦100,000 a week, 53 monitored

Nigeria’s disease control agency is now monitoring 53 people exposed to the country’s confirmed Ebola patient and has approved a weekly payment of ₦100,000 for each person in isolation or quarantine, its director-general said in Abuja on Oct. 25, 2026.

The number of contacts has risen from the 44 first announced after Nigeria confirmed its first Ebola case in more than a decade on Oct. 20. Dr. Jide Idris, director-general of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), told a media briefing that 44 of the 53 were linked to the health facility where the patient was treated and nine were identified through other contact, according to Premium Times and Daily Trust.

The patient is a 42-year-old woman who lives in Abuja and returned from Uganda on Oct. 3. Contacts include health workers, household members and the team that collected her samples. Idris said they are being followed for 21 days, the longest Ebola incubation period, and urged them to co-operate. Being a contact, he said, does not mean a person has Ebola.

The weekly payment is on top of accommodation and meals the agency already provides. Some contacts had complained that quarantine was stopping them from running businesses and supporting their families, BusinessDay reported. “We are providing N100,000 per person per week just to maintain their comfort and feeding, because they were complaining,” Idris said. “But again, it’s an emergency. We continue to review it as we go along.”

Idris said the money was not part of the agency’s original plan. He also said states must provide funds and materials to manage contacts in their own emergencies rather than leave the cost to the Federal Capital Territory.

Premium Times also reported that the NCDC has reversed its earlier travel rule. A health declaration form first applied to all international travellers, was later limited to passengers from selected countries linked to the outbreak, including Congo and Uganda, and is now widened again. “But with this case, we have reversed that directive,” Idris said. The agency has sent advisories to the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria and the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, and further instructions for airlines are expected. Screening is focused on the airports in Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, Kano and Port Harcourt.

Virologist Oyewale Tomori, a former president of the Nigerian Academy of Science, questioned the pace of the response. He said he had expected more than 44 contacts and asked whether the ₦10 billion President Bola Tinubu approved in June for Ebola and other health threats had been released in time, Daily Trust reported. He said the money should have gone to training health workers, equipping facilities and setting up isolation centres.

For Canadians, the Public Health Agency of Canada’s travel health notices list a Level 3 notice for Ebola in Congo, updated Oct. 20, which advises avoiding non-essential travel. No Ebola notice was listed for Nigeria, Uganda or Kenya when this report was written. Canadians with plans to travel to Nigeria, including the large Nigerian community in Canada with family there, should check the Government of Canada’s travel advice and any airline requirements before departure, as Nigeria’s entry rules are changing.

Canada News Media has followed the outbreak from Congo to Nigeria and Kenya. Earlier reports include Nigeria’s first confirmed case, the patient’s identity, the toll in Congo and Kenya’s second death.

Via Premium Times, Daily Trust and BusinessDay.

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