Professor Dr Ibrahim Abubakar

Research Priorities: Public health, infection epidemiology, tuberculosis, Covid-19, inequalities in access to healthcare
Ibrahim Abubakar is a British-Nigerian doctor specialising in public health, infectious diseases and health systems. He works on projects to improve public health in both the United Kingdom as well as in Africa and particularly Nigeria. The recommendation from the “Lancet Nigeria Commission”, which he led, for a health insurance for the 83 million poorest citizens of Nigeria was enacted as a law and led to a transformation of the healthcare system in Africa’s most populous country.
Ibrahim Abubakar first worked as an internal medicine doctor. While doing so he observed the effects of severe infectious diseases such as HIV as well as deaths due to treatable infectious diseases such as meningitis in patients that had no access to healthcare due to poverty. These experiences moved him to turn to public health with the goal of rectifying unequal access to healthcare.
Ibrahim Abubakar’s achievements includes his recent work at the “Lancet Nigeria Commission”. This directly led to Nigeria introducing a new law that prescribes a new basic health insurance and that created a fund for vulnerable persons covering 83 million disadvantaged Nigerians. All employers are now obligated to offer health insurance. As head of an international multi-disciplinary team, in 2022 he carried out a comprehensive analysis of the Nigerian healthcare system which was supported by data on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD). The investigation identified critical gaps in the healthcare system and gave recommendations on financing, healthcare staff, data systems, healthcare security and on research and innovation as well as recommendations on access to healthcare for the whole population. Systematic political commitment and measures followed each of these recommendations. 
In 2020 Ibrahim Abubakar was appointed as the scientific and technical consultant of the Nigerian Presidential Taskforce COVID-19. In this role he organised and led a team of experts that responded to daily enquires for evidence-based strategy papers to support national decisions. He also supported the development and implementation of strategies on the extent and timing of national COVID-19 measures. Under his leadership, over 40 strategy papers were written which created the foundation for Nigeria’s national covid-19 response. In the United Kingdom he was a scientific adviser of a special committee for science and technology of the House of Lords during the COVID-19 pandemic and worked on the “Science of COVID-19”. He also leads an EU funded international study on COVID-19 variants with participants from Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia.
Ibrahim Abubakar was also significantly involved in the development of a health initiative for tuberculosis (TB). As head of the tuberculosis unit for Public Health England, he developed a research programme in 2015 for improving check-ups for tuberculosis. In recognition of his politically influential research he was appointed chairperson of the WHO’s main strategic and technical consultant groups for tuberculosis, which contributed to improved diagnosis of antibiotic-resistant diseases and improved access to treatments, thus leading to an annual decline in new infections of TB worldwide of two percent between 2015 and 2018. 
Based on his work on tuberculosis, Ibrahim Abubakar led the multidisciplinary Lancet Commission for Migration and Health which influenced subsequent global, regional and national policy discussions. He was co-editor of “Handbook of Refugee Health”, the award-winning textbook on refugee health which is available for first-aiders in humanitarian situations worldwide and free of charge.