On Monday, the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC) addressed certain concerns about the Nigeria International Travel Portal’s use.
The current travel advisory and public health safety measures are being reviewed by the Presidential Steering Committee on COVID-19 and will be updated soon, according to the statement.
We acknowledge Nigerians’ worries about the Nigeria International Travel Portal (NITP) and COVID-19 testing before and after arrival in Nigeria. We would like to clarify some of these concerns:
The NITP was developed by the private sector and is managed by Nigerians in the public sector as one of several measures introduced to limit the risk of importation and spread of COVID-19 in our country. Despite challenges in the functionalities of the site, mostly related to payments using foreign cards, we have continued to work extremely hard on its improvement.
While the NITP site is hosted on NCDC’s domain, all funds for testing purposes are paid through the bank to the accredited private laboratories.
No funds from private testing are received by NCDC. COVID-19 testing in government laboratories remains free of
charge for public health purposes. Testing for personal purposes such as travel are paid for by individuals to be conducted in private laboratories.
In the meantime, the NCDC continues to deliver on its mandate, including strong response to COVID-19 and other concurrent disease outbreaks in Nigeria.
