Peste des Petits Ruminants is a highly contagious viral disease that affects sheep and goats. The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to controlling and eliminating the disease, stating that it remains on track to achieve this goal by 2030. Henrietta Okokon, the Deputy Director of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development's Information and Public Relations Department, revealed this in a statement released on Friday.
In her opening remarks at the two-day Stakeholders' Workshop on the Review and Update of Nigeria's National Strategic Plan for the Control and Eradication of Peste des Petits Ruminants, held in Abuja, the ministry's Permanent Secretary, Chinyere Akujobi, reportedly made the assurance.
Akujobi stated that combating PPR would lower poverty, enhance rural livelihoods, increase livestock productivity, and increase trade opportunities, making its control and elimination both an animal health goal and a national development priority.
"Under the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH), Nigeria has remained fully committed to the global goal to eradicate PPR by 2030," she said.
"To lessen the burden of PPR while enhancing disease reporting and response systems, we have implemented a variety of interventions, including disease surveillance, laboratory strengthening, outbreak investigations, targeted vaccination campaigns, stakeholder engagement, and capacity-building programs."
According to her, the Federal Government's agricultural transformation program places a high focus on protecting small ruminants because they are the main source of financial security for millions of households nationwide.
PPR remains one of the most economically debilitating transboundary diseases affecting sheep and goats in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, according to the permanent secretary.
"This illness still poses a threat to livelihoods, lowers household incomes, and limits the expansion of the livestock industry." Strengthening our control efforts is crucial, as Nigeria has the largest population of small ruminants in Africa—an estimated 200 million sheep and goats—and important transboundary trade routes with Niger, Benin, Cameroon, and Chad, she said.
According to Akujobi, the purpose of the workshop was to create an evidence-based National Strategic Plan for 2026–2030 that would incorporate risk mitigation and cross-border trade norms with veterinary services.
The ministry would prioritize the creation of a credible, fully costed implementation plan supported by a sustainable resource mobilization strategy, she added, praising development partners, regional technical organizations, and national experts for supporting efforts to eradicate the disease.
The statement also cited Nigeria's Chief Veterinary Officer, Samuel Anzaku, who stated that while the nation had made impressive strides in controlling animal diseases, the current National Strategic Plan needed to be reviewed in order to bring it into compliance with the ECOWAS regional coordination mechanisms, the Global PPR Eradication Programme, and the Performance Monitoring and Assessment Tool roadmap benchmarks.
He believes that the study should concentrate on increasing laboratory-epidemiology links, implementing risk-based immunization tactics, improving illness hotspot mapping, and integrating contemporary epidemiological and laboratory data.
He continued, "This structural update is essential to moving Nigeria into PMAT Stage 2 and beyond, ensuring that every public and private investment delivers measurable scientific progress towards achieving a PPR-free nation."
Dr. Perdita Hilary Lopes, a representative of the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources, was also cited in the statement as describing the elimination of PPR as a strategic investment in resilient livestock systems, poverty reduction, women's economic empowerment, youth employment, sustainable rural development, and improved food systems throughout Africa.
A PPR-free Africa by 2040, she continued, would greatly advance the goals of Agenda 2063, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
The Federal Ministry of Livestock Development's previous attempts to bolster Nigeria's campaign against PPR are followed by this latest drive. To coordinate national response efforts, the ministry established a 33-person National Technical Working Group on the control and elimination of the disease in January.
Idi Maiha, the Minister of Livestock Development at the time, warned that PPR was one of the most destructive transboundary animal diseases affecting sheep and goats, endangering the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and pastoralists, compromising food security, and restricting livestock trade.
Nigeria's efforts to eradicate PPR are in line with the global push to do so by 2030, which is spearheaded by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health.
In December 2025, Abuja hosted a West African surveillance workshop as part of the regional effort. Veterinary authorities and technical experts from all over the region discussed risk-based surveillance and cross-border coordination strategies to expedite the 2030 eradication target.