More than 1,500 staff members of the Environmental Health Council of Nigeria (EHCON) have been without salaries for nearly 20 months, following the Federal Government’s decision to withdraw funding from selected professional bodies and agencies.
EHCON, established under Nigerian law in 2002, is the country’s primary authority overseeing environmental health. The agency has played crucial roles during public health emergencies, including Nigeria’s Ebola response in 2014 and efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 in 2020. Officers from EHCON were deployed to entry points such as airports, seaports, and land borders, where they managed sanitation efforts and decontamination protocols to contain outbreaks.
The financial hardship facing the agency stems from a 2023 directive issued by the Budget Office of the Federation under former Director General Ben Akabueze. The memo announced that numerous professional councils would transition to full self-funding by the end of 2026. However, in practice, the government stopped providing funds to many of these agencies by December 2024, two years earlier than anticipated.
A list released that year confirmed that 26 agencies would no longer receive federal support, reportedly saving the government over ₦27 billion. While some health-related regulatory bodies were eventually exempted from this decision, EHCON, despite its public health mandate, was not among them.
Efforts to secure funding for the agency have been ongoing. In 2024, then Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa, appealed to the Federal Executive Council to continue supporting health-related councils. His appeal led to the release of over ₦6 billion to 13 exempted agencies under the Ministry of Health. EHCON, which is overseen by the Ministry of Environment, remained excluded.
A recent letter dated April 30, 2025, from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, urged President Bola Tinubu to reconsider EHCON’s situation. Akume emphasized that the agency’s work supports preventive healthcare and public sanitation, making it vital to national well-being. He noted that while similar regulatory councils under the health ministry were reintegrated into the budget, EHCON received zero funding in 2024, leaving its workers unpaid and the agency unable to operate effectively.
The House of Representatives Committee on Environment also weighed in earlier in the year, expressing concern over the agency’s neglect and warning of the consequences for Nigeria’s health system if preventive health services continue to be underfunded.
With growing concern over rising disease risks and a national focus on strengthening public health infrastructure, calls for the reinstatement of EHCON’s budget are intensifying. Stakeholders warn that continued financial neglect of such a vital institution could erode Nigeria’s capacity to respond to future health threats.