# Muhammad Ali Pate

Muhammad Ali Pate CON (born 6 September 1968) is a Nigerian physician, politician, and the coordination Minister of Health and Social Welfare of Nigeria, appointed in 2023 by president Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Prior to his appointment, he served as a Professor of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University and director of the Global Financing Facility (GFF) for Women, Children and Adolescents at the World Bank Group.
Pate's first ministerial appointment as Nigeria's Minister of Health was in July 2011, after serving as the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency. He resigned from this position, effective 24 July 2013, to take up a professorship at Duke University Global Health Institute in the United States.
Pate previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of Big Win Philanthropyand as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition, and Population. Pate is also the former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria.
In October 2022, Pate was conferred with the title of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) by President Muhammadu Buhari, alongside 447 other Nigerians recognized for their contributions in various fields. In February 2023, Pate was appointed CEO of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), an organization dedicated to providing vaccines in low-income countries.

## Early life and education

Muhammad Ali Pate was born on 6 September 1968, in present-day Misau, in the Local Government Area of Bauchi State in Nigeria. He was raised in the northern part of the country. He is the son of a Fulani herdsman.
Pate graduated from high school to enter the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Medical school in Kaduna State, Nigeria. He graduated from ABU and moved to Gambia where he worked in rural hospitals for a number of years. He then became a fellow in infectious diseases at the University of Rochester Medical Center in the United States.
He is an American Board-Certified MD in both Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, with an MBA (Health Sector Concentration) from Duke University, United States. Prior to this, he studied at the University College London and has a Masters degree in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom.

## Early career

Prior to his appointment into the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) in 2008, Pate had an extensive career spanning over 10 years at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. He also held several senior positions, including Senior Health Specialist and Human Development Sector Coordinator for the East Asia/Pacific Region and Senior Health Specialist for the African Region. While at the World Bank, a major project led by Pate was the far-reaching health sector reform programs in Africa, East Asia and other regions of the World Bank. Worthy of note is his initiation of landmark public-private partnership to replace a National Referral Hospital in Lesotho.

## Achievements as Nigeria's coordinating minister of health and social welfare

Muhammad Ali Pate was appointed as Nigeria's Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare in August 2023 under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Since assuming office, he has introduced various initiatives aimed at improving the country’s healthcare system and social welfare programs. With Nigeria’s population exceeding 220 million, as reported by the World Bank in 2023, his tenure has focused on addressing healthcare accessibility and social welfare challenges.
Since assuming office, Pate has introduced initiatives aimed at addressing Nigeria's healthcare challenges, including the development of a unified health and social welfare program. His approach emphasizes an integrated strategy to tackle issues such as poverty, illiteracy, and social well-being, with the goal of improving overall health outcomes in Nigeria.
In 2024, the ministry prioritized strengthening the primary healthcare system, with a focus on improving access to basic health services for underserved populations. Key areas of emphasis included immunization, maternal and child health, and the treatment of common illnesses, particularly in rural areas where healthcare access had been limited. According to government performance indicators, child mortality declined to 16.7% in 2023.

### Reforming Nigeria's healthcare

On the need for a holistic health sector reform that had been long overdue in the country required Prof Pate leading a reform that will make it more efficient, equitable, and resilient in tackling pandemics and epidemics. Among various issues was the need to ensure addressing issues like inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, and workforce shortages. One of such reforms included the revitalization of the national health insurance authority of the country expanding its health insurance coverage aimed at achieving universal health coverage and reduced out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for Nigerians.

### Revitalization strategy for Nigeria’s primary healthcare centers

Prof Pate’s revitalization strategy was introduced into the country's health sector a health sector renewal investment initiative aimed at improving key areas, such as primary healthcare infrastructure revitalization which targeted 5,500 primary healthcare centers with 3,018 to be completed in 2025. Prior to this, he approved a baseline assessment of 8,421 primary healthcare centers conducted to identify and prioritize facilities in need of urgent intervention and to help rural facilities align with global healthcare standards. In 2023 and 2024 he led the expansion of the basic health care provision fund which disbursed forty five billion nine hundred million naira directly to 8,800 primary healthcare centers known as PHCs for the purpose of improving infrastructure, provision of essential medicines and workers’ welfare. The fund Aims to provide increased direct financial support to the underserved areas.
The revitalization strategy by Prof Pate targeted health workforce deployment to rural communities through recruitment and deployment of doctors, nurses, midwives, and community health workers to rural PHCs under his ministry’s initiative known as national health workforce recruitment plan. The initiative included incentives and retention programs aimed at increasing the presence of health workers in remote areas. in addition promoting a health workforce migration policy which sought to address workforce attrition and motivation challenges. Mobile and digital health expansion for rural coverage was one of the deliverables of the revitalization initiative focuses on deployment of mobile health clinics in hard-to-reach and underserved areas to providing maternal, child health services, routine immunization, basic diagnostic, treatment services, expansion of telemedicine services, enabling remote consultations for patients in rural PHCs through partnerships with private sector health tech firms.
Prof Pate led the need for community health engagement and social welfare integration for the purpose of strengthening partnerships with traditional and religious leaders, ensuring greater community buy-in for PHC utilization. This enabled more deployment of community health volunteers and midwives to rural communities for home-based care and referral services. As part of the program, the integration of nutrition, water, and sanitation programs into PHC service delivery, addressing malnutrition and preventable diseases.

## Other board, commission, and committee memberships

* Co-chair (along with Margaret Kruk), The Lancet Global Health Commission on High Quality Health Systems. Report was launched on 6 September 2018
* Member, Lancet Commission on Malaria Eradication -ongoing
* Member, Lancet Commission on the Future of Health in Sub-Saharan Africa (report 09/2017)
* Member, Independent Monitoring Board of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative
* Board member, American International Health Alliance, Washington D.C., 2015–2022
* Board member, Aceso Global, Washington DC 2015–2022
* Board member, Healthcare Leadership Academy
* Member, Investment Committee, Flint Atlantic Capital
* Member, Steering Committee on the Value of Vaccination Research Network, Harvard University
* Member, Steering Committee, Study on the Assessment of the Impact of Polio Eradication on Routine Immunization and Primary Health Care, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2011–2012
* Editorial advisory board, BMJ Global Health
* Advisory Board member, Ethiopian International Primary Health Care Institute
* Senior Fellow of the Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI), Inducted at Yale University, New Haven Connecticut, April 2015
* Co-chair, Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria

## Recognition

* 2012 – Harvard Health Leader, awarded by the Harvard Ministerial Leadership Program

## Personal life

Pate holds the title as "Chigari" or knight in Misau.

## Recent publications

* Nkengasong, John N.; Raji, Tajudeen; Ferguson, Stephanie L.; Pate, Muhammad A.; Williams, Michelle A. (10 June 2021). "Nursing leadership in Africa and health security". eClinicalMedicine. 36: 100930. doi:10.1016/j.eclinm.2021.100930. PMC 8207179. PMID 34169244.
* Bali, Sulzhan; Stewart, Kearsley A; Pate, Muhammad Ali (9 November 2016). "Long shadow of fear in an epidemic: fearonomic effects of Ebola on the private sector in Nigeria". BMJ Global Health. 1 (3): e000111. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2016-000111. PMC 5321397. PMID 28588965.
* Moon, Suerie; Sridhar, Devi; Pate, Muhammad A; Jha, Ashish K.; Clinton, Chelsea; Delaunay, Sophie; Edwin, Valnora; Fallah, Mosoka; Fidler, David P.; Garrett, Laurie; Goosby, Eric; Gostin, Lawrence O; Heymann, David L; Lee, Kelley; Leung, Gabriel M.; Morrison, J Stephen; Saavedra, Jorge; Tanner, Marcel; Leigh, Jennifer A.; Hawkins, Benjamin; Woskie, Liana R; Piot, Peter (2015). "Will Ebola change the game? Ten essential reforms before the next pandemic. The report of the Harvard-LSHTM Independent Panel on the Global Response to Ebola". The Lancet. 386 (10009): 2204–2221. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(15)00946-0. PMC 7137174. PMID 26615326.
* Okoli, Ugo; Morris, Laura; Oshin, Adetokunbo; Pate, Muhammad A.; Aigbe, Chidimma; Muhammad, Ado (12 December 2014). "Conditional cash transfer schemes in Nigeria: potential gains for maternal and child health service uptake in a national pilot programme". BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 14: 408. doi:10.1186/s12884-014-0408-9. PMC 4273319. PMID 25495258.
* Abubakar, Ibrahim; Dalglish, Sarah L.; Angell, Blake; Sanuade, Olutobi; Abimbola, Seye; Adamu, Aishatu Lawal; Adetifa, Ifedayo M. O.; Colbourn, Tim; Ogunlesi, Afolabi Olaniyi; Onwujekwe, Obinna; Owoaje, Eme T.; Okeke, Iruka N.; Adeyemo, Adebowale; Aliyu, Gambo; Aliyu, Muktar H; Aliyu, Sani Hussaini; Ameh, Emmanuel A.; Archibong, Belinda; Ezeh, Alex; Gadanya, Muktar A.; Ihekweazu, Chikwe; Ihekweazu, Vivianne; Iliyasu, Zubairu; Kwaku Chiroma, Aminatu; Mabayoje, Diana A.; Nasir Sambo, Mohammed; Obaro, Stephen; Yinka-Ogunleye, Adesola; Okonofua, Friday; Oni, Tolu; Onyimadu, Olu; Pate, Muhammad Ali; Salako, Babatunde L.; Shuaib, Faisal; Tsiga-Ahmed, Fatimah; Zanna, Fatima H (19 March 2022). "The Lancet Nigeria Commission: investing in health and the future of the nation". The Lancet. 399 (10330): 1155–1200. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02488-0. PMC 8943278. PMID 35303470.
* Wood, Stacy; Pate, Muhammad Ali; Schulman, Kevin (14 October 2021). "Novel strategies to support global promotion of COVID-19 vaccination". BMJ Global Health. 6 (10): e006066. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2021-006066. PMC 8521672. PMID 34649869.
* Swaminathan, Soumya; Sheikh, Kabir; Marten, Robert; Taylor, Martin; Jhalani, Manoj; Chukwujekwu, Ogochukwu; Pearson, Luwei; Allotey, Pascale; Gough, Jean; Scherpbier, Robert W.; Gupta, Anuradha; Wijnroks, Marijke; Pate, Muhammad Ali; Sorgho, Gaston; Levine, Orin; Goodyear-Smith, Felicity; Sundararaman, Thiagarajan; Montenegro, Hernan; Dalil, Suraya; Ghaffar, Abdul (18 December 2020). "Embedded research to advance primary health care". BMJ Global Health. 5 (12): e004684. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004684. PMC 7751205. PMID 33355263.
* Yamey, Gavin; Schäferhoff, Marco; Hatchett, Richard; Pate, Muhammad; Zhao, Feng; McDade, Kaci Kennedy (2020). "Ensuring global access to COVID-19 vaccines". The Lancet. 395 (10234): 1405–1406. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30763-7. PMC 7271264. PMID 32243778.
* Kruk, Margaret E.; Gage, Anna D; Arsenault, Catherine; Jordan, Keely; Leslie, Hannah H.; Roder-DeWan, Sanam; Adeyi, Olusoji; Barker, Pierre; Daelmans, Bernadette; Doubova, Svetlana V.; English, Mike; Elorrio, Ezequiel García; Guanais, Frederico; Gureje, Oye; Hirschhorn, Lisa R.; Jiang, Lixin; Kelley, Edward; Lemango, Ephrem Tekle; Liljestrand, Jerker; Malata, Address; Marchant, Tanya; Matsoso, Malebona Precious; Meara, John G; Mohanan, Manoj; Ndiaye, Youssoupha; Norheim, Ole F; Reddy, K Srinath; Rowe, Alexander K; Salomon, Joshua A; Thapa, Gagan; Twum-Danso, Nana A Y; Pate, Muhammad (2018). "High-quality health systems in the Sustainable Development Goals era: time for a revolution". The Lancet. Global Health. 6 (11): e1196 – e1252. doi:10.1016/S2214-109X(18)30386-3. PMC 7734391. PMID 30196093.
* Upfill-Brown, Alexander M.; Lyons, Hil M.; Pate, Muhammad A.; Shuaib, Faisal; Baig, Shahzad; Hu, Hao; Eckhoff, Philip A; Chabot-Couture, Guillaume (4 June 2014). "Predictive spatial risk model of poliovirus to aid prioritization and hasten eradication in Nigeria". BMC Medicine. 12: 92. doi:10.1186/1741-7015-12-92. PMC 4066838. PMID 24894345.
* Tulenko, Kate; Møgedal, Sigrun; Afzal, Muhammad Mahmood; Frymus, Diana; Oshin, Adetokunbo; Pate, Muhammad; Quain, Estelle; Pinel, Arletty; Wynd, Shona; Zodpey, Sanjay (1 November 2013). "Community health workers for universal health-care coverage: from fragmentation to synergy". Bulletin of the World Health Organization. 91 (11): 847–852. doi:10.2471/BLT.13.118745 (inactive 5 December 2024). PMC 3853952. PMID 24347709.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of December 2024 (link)
* Gupta, Neeru; Maliqi, Blerta; França, Adson; Nyonator, Frank; Pate, Muhammad A.; Sanders, David; Belhadj, Hedia; Daelmans, Bernadette (24 June 2011). "Human resources for maternal, newborn and child health: from measurement and planning to performance for improved health outcomes". Human Resources for Health. 9: 16. doi:10.1186/1478-4491-9-16. PMC 3157412. PMID 21702913.
* Abimbola, Seye; Okoli, Ugo; Olubajo, Olalekan; Abdullahi, Mohammed J.; Pate, Muhammad A. (1 May 2012). "The Midwives Service Scheme in Nigeria". PLOS Medicine. 9 (5): e1001211. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001211. PMC 3341343. PMID 22563303.
* Gupta, Neeru; Maliqi, Blerta; França, Adson; Nyonator, Frank; Pate, Muhammad A.; Sanders, David; Belhadj, Hedia; Daelmans, Bernadette (December 2011). "Human resources for maternal, newborn and child health: from measurement and planning to performance for improved health outcomes". Human Resources for Health. 9 (1): 16. doi:10.1186/1478-4491-9-16. PMC 3157412. PMID 21702913. Gale A265232619.
* Pate, Muhammad Ali; Gyapong, John O.; Dowdle, Walter R.; Hopkins, Adrian; Hozumi, Dairiku; Malecela, Mwelecele; Tyson, Stewart (2011). "Group Report: Designing Elimination or Eradication Initiatives that Interface Effectively with Health Systems". Disease Eradication in the 21st Century. pp. 273–286. doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262016735.003.0019. ISBN 978-0-262-01673-5.
* Wassilak, Steven; Pate, Muhammad Ali; Wannemuehler, Kathleen; Jenks, Julie; Burns, Cara; Chenoweth, Paul; Abanida, Emmanuel Ade; Adu, Festus; Baba, Marycelin; Gasasira, Alex; Iber, Jane; Mkanda, Pascal; Williams, A. J.; Shaw, Jing; Pallansch, Mark; Kew, Olen (1 April 2011). "Outbreak of Type 2 Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus in Nigeria: Emergence and Widespread Circulation in an Underimmunized Population". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 203 (7): 898–909. doi:10.1093/infdis/jiq140. JSTOR 41151031. PMC 3068031. PMID 21402542.
* Jenkins, Helen E.; Aylward, R. Bruce; Gasasira, Alex; Donnelly, Christl A.; Mwanza, Michael; Corander, Jukka; Garnier, Sandra; Chauvin, Claire; Abanida, Emmanuel; Pate, Muhammad Ali; Adu, Festus; Baba, Marycelin; Grassly, Nicholas C. (24 June 2010). "Implications of a Circulating Vaccine-Derived Poliovirus in Nigeria". New England Journal of Medicine. 362 (25): 2360–2369. doi:10.1056/nejmoa0910074. PMID 20573924.

## Book chapters and technical reports

* Baris, E., Silverman, R., Wang, H., Zhao, F., Pate, M., Walking the Talk: Reimagining Primary Healthcare in the post-COVID-19 era. Published by the World Bank, April 2022.
* Liam Donaldson, Thomas Frieden, Susan Goldstein, Muhammad Pate. Every virus. 17th Report of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). June 2021.
* Liam Donaldson, Thomas Frieden, Susan Goldstein, Muhammad Pate. Every virus. 16th Report of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). June 2019.
* Liam Donaldson, Thomas Frieden, Susan Goldstein, Muhammad Pate. Every virus. 15th Report of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). June 2018.
* Liam Donaldson, Thomas Frieden, Susan Goldstein, Muhammad Pate. Every virus. 14th Report of the Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). June 2017.
* Emmanuel Jimenez and Muhammad Pate. Reaping a Demographic Dividend in Africa's Largest Country: Nigeria. In: Hans Groth & John F. May, eds. "Africa's Population: In Search of a Demographic Dividend", Dordrecht: Springer Publishers, 2017 (ISBN 978-3-319-46887-7).
* Muhammad Pate. Contributor to "The Art and Science of Delivery": McKinsey's Voices on Society, Published 2013 in honor of the 10th Anniversary of the Skoll World Forum.
* Pate, Muhammad Ali; Gyapong, John O.; Dowdle, Walter R.; Hopkins, Adrian; Hozumi, Dairiku; Malecela, Mwelecele; Tyson, Stewart (2011). "Group Report: Designing Elimination or Eradication Initiatives that Interface Effectively with Health Systems". Disease Eradication in the 21st Century. pp. 273–286. doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262016735.003.0019. ISBN 978-0-262-01673-5.
* Pate, Muhammad Ali; Schoppig, Joel (2012). "Africa's Growing Giant – Population Dynamics in Nigeria". Population Dynamics in Muslim Countries. pp. 211–224. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-27881-5_13. ISBN 978-3-642-27880-8.
* Pate M.A., Beeharry G., Abramson W. Improving health care access for the poor: A case study of the Washington, D.C. public health care reforms. Presented at the 4th Europe and the Americas conference on health sector reforms, February 2002, Malaga, Spain.