The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved the establishment of Nigeria Industrial Council to stimulate the activities of industries in the country.
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah, who disclosed this at the end of the weekly FEC meeting in Abuja, said the council would engage the private sector to develop a viable policy for the nation’s industrial sector.
He said the Nigeria Industrial Council would be chaired by the Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo with two vice chairmen from government and private sector.
He the council’s members would be drawn from private sector and relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government.
ministries.
Also speaking, Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, said the council, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, also approved Draft Bill for National Centre for Disease Control.
He said the draft bill was approved to give legal backing for the establishment of the National Centre for Disease Control and to enable the agency have its own board, recruit its Chief Executive Officer and personnel.
He said there is a budget line for National Center for Disease Control already, adding that the federal government is not going to incur any additional expenses.
The minister said the centre, operating since 2012, has been instrumental in the combating the deadly ebola virus and lassa fever.
“To move the agenda of public health intervention forward, what is known internationally is that they will always be another epidemic or another disease outbreak but what we do not know is when and where it will happen. What we need to do is to get ourselves prepared for the next epidemic.
“The National Council of Health in its meeting in Lagos in 2007, took a decision to establish a Nigerian center for disease control. The center became operational in 2012 and actually constituted a major force in combating ebola and has been very operational in handling lessa fever in different parts of the country.
“So, what we have done today is to provide legal framework for this agency so that it can validly perform the role that is expected of such role that is expected of such frontline agency. It is patterned after the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention which was established in 1946. The whole concept is not new what is new is that we decided to move ahead with it in Nigeria.
“There is also a European Centre for Disease Control established in 2004 and in 2013 following a resolution in Abuja, African Union also decided to establish a center for disease control. Our center for disease control is a frontline agency that has been recognised internationally, it has been designated as the regional center for disease control in West Africa, it has also been designated as the regional center for the African center for disease and prevention,” he said.
