Muhammad Ali Pate (born 6 September 1968) is a Nigerian physician and politician who is the current Minister of Health and Social Welfare of Nigeria since 2023. He's also a professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard University. He formerly served as the Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population and director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents (GFF) at the World Bank Group. Pate is also the former Minister of State for Health in Nigeria.
On Tuesday, 11 October 2022, Pate, along with Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and Amina J. Mohammed were conferred with Nigeria's national honours. Pate was conferred with Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON).
Earlier in 2019, Pate was appointed Julio Frenk Professor of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Pate was also the former Minister of Health in Nigeria. His appointment in July 2011 followed his role as the executive director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency in Abuja. He resigned as Nigeria's minister of State for Health effective 24 July 2013 to take up the position of professor in Duke University's Global Health Institute, USA. He is formerly the chief executive officer of Big Win Philanthropy and an adjunct professor of Global Health of the Duke University Global Health Institute.
On 1 September 2021, Pate returned to Harvard University as a Julio Frenk Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
In February 2023, Muhammad Ali Pate was appointed chief executive officer of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, which works to provide vaccines in low-income countries.
Early life and education
Muhammad Ali Pate was born on 6 September 1968 in the present day Misau local government area of Bauchi State in Nigeria and was raised in the northern part of the country. He is the son of a fulani herdsman.
The first in his family to complete a secondary school education, 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 the Gambia where he worked in rural hospitals for a few 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, USA. Prior to this he studied at the University College London. He also has a Masters in Health System Management from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.
Early career
Prior to his appointment to the NPHCDA in 2008, Pate had an extensive career spanning over 10 years at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and 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 programmes in Africa, East Asia and other regions of the World Bank. Of note is his initiation of landmark Public–private partnership to replace a National Referral Hospital in Lesotho.
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 September 6, 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