The shortage of skilled public health workers remains an important challenge for building effective health systems in many developing countries. Achieving the Joint External Evaluation target of 1 field epidemiologist/200,000 population became a priority of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC), which led to the implementation of the Intermediate Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (I-NFELTP) aimed at building the epidemiologic capacity of the health workforce and improving the ability to monitor population health.

