MONROVIA – Liberian President Joseph Nyuma Boakai has recognized the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) with “2025 Performance Excellence Award” for the entity’s progress under the leadership of Dr. Dougbeh Chris Nyan as Director General. This recognition covers an annual review of work done within the period January 2025 to June 12, 2025 through December 31, 2025 as per the Performance Contract signed by Dr. Nyan with the government at the Executive Mansion in 2025.
“I would like to thank and congratulate my hard-working at the NPHIL on being recognized with this Performance Excellence Award presented by President Joseph Boakai,” Dr. Nyan said. The recognition of Excellent Performance aligns with the General Auditing Commission’s (GAC) Report of 2025 on Dr. Nyan’s leadership at the NPHIL, which demonstrates NPHIL’s financial compliance, administrative functions with other agencies and ministries, and technical progress which earned NPHIL a score of 81%.
Dr. Nyan, a globally recognized biomedical scientist, inventor, and public health expert assumed the leadership of the NPHIL on August 19, 2024. Along with his Team, he carried out technical improvements in diagnostics and laboratory functions, and strengthened national as well as cross-border disease surveillance. His leadership also demonstrated high-level of financial accountability, transparency, and fiscal discipline in handling the finances of the institution, while also he also cracked down on corruption and mismanagement.
Under Dr. Nyan’s leadership during the period under review, three pilot Regional-Laboratory were established in Lofa, Bong, and Maryland Counties so as to diversify testing. He also introduced the Genomic Sequencing technology at the National Reference Laboratory, and recruited and trained over 20 emerging scientists in various aspects of laboratory science and molecular diagnostics. He also led a team that discovered and identified the Monkeypox virus Clade IIa in Liberia.
As a highlight of these accomplishments, the entity also achieved national and international recognition, with NPHIL designated as an “Africa Regional Center of Excellence for National Public Health Institute Development” by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
The substantial progress in institutional leadership and technical output sharply contradict an illegal NPHIL Board resolution which claimed “gross inefficiency,” a resolution without evidence on which President Boakai based the issuance of an unlawful termination letter to Dr. Nyan. The termination was challenged as unlawful by Dr. Nyan at the Supreme Court of Liberia and he won the case.
In the landmark ruling on February 16, 2026 the Supreme Court found no evidence in the NPHIL Board and Minister of Health Louise Kpoto’s resolution and affidavits as well as found the dismissal to be unlawful and in violation of the NPHIL Act and the Constitution of Liberia. “The fact that the President of Liberia Joseph Nyuma Boakai has now awarded the NPHIL a ‘Performance Excellence Award’ for the period under review that I served as Director General, it shows that nobody can ever bury the truth and that the truth is very stubborn,” Dr. Nyan commented.
