President Muhammadu Buhari has appointed new chief executives for five health agencies, namely the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA; Centre for Disease Control, CDC; National Agency for the Control of Aids, NACA; National Institute for Medical Research, NIMR and National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS.

US-based Echezona Ezeanolue, a professor of paediatrics and public health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is the new boss at the NPHCDA, while Usman Yusuf, another US-based award-winning professor of paediatrics, becomes the executive secretary of the NHIS.

Also Chikwe Ihekweazu, a public health consultant, was appointed the new head of the CDC; Aliyu Hussein, a UK-based consultant in microbiology and infectious diseases is the new Director-General of NACA, while Babatunde Lawal Salako, the current provost of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, is the new CEO of the NIMR.