President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Faisal Shuaib as the new Executive Secretary of National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA.

This was contained in a statement issued on Wednesday by his senior special assistant media, Garba Shehu.

Shuaib, a medical doctor and public health specialist, is currently a Senior Program Officer for Africa at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, USA.

His responsibility at the foundation includes developing and implementing strategies on polio outbreak response activities in Africa.

Prior to joining the foundation, Shuaib was part of the team that coordinated Nigeria’s successful response to the outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease, EVD.

He was the Incident Manager of the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre in 2014 and his efforts which prevented an Ebola outbreak in the country was lauded by the international community.

The World Health Organization, WHO, had estimated that 20,000 people could be infected with Ebola before the crisis in Nigeria ends.

Shuaib was also a member of the six-man panel which was established to analyse the response of the World Health Organization, WHO, to the global Ebola outbreak in 2014.

He also provided technical advice to the Federal Ministry of Health and NPHCDA in areas of immunization and polio eradication activities between 2012 and 2015.

The new NPHCDA Chairman-nominee was also a former research associate at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

His nomination is expected to be ratified by the Senate.