Dr. Zainab Shinkafi-Bagudu, a Nigerian pediatrician who founded the Medicaid Cancer Foundation, has taken over as president of the Union for International Cancer Control for the 2026-2028 term, becoming the first African to head the Geneva-based organization, the Nigerian Cancer Society announced Tuesday.
The handover was set for the UICC’s General Assembly on October 20, a virtual session the organization scheduled to welcome her as president and to elect its next board. Members chose her as president-elect on October 8, 2024, so the transition completes a two-year run-up that the UICC reserves for incoming presidents to learn the organization’s workings before taking the chair. She succeeds Ulrika Arehed Kagstrom of Sweden, who held the post for 2024-2026 and was due to chair the assembly as outgoing president.
The continent she now represents on the global stage carries a heavy load. Nigeria’s minister of state for health, Iziaq Salako, has cited GLOBOCAN 2022 estimates showing Africa recorded 1,185,216 new cancer cases and 763,843 cancer deaths that year, with Nigeria responsible for more than 10.5 percent of the total. The GLOBOCAN country sheet for Nigeria itself lists 127,763 new cases and 79,542 deaths for 2022, estimates built from registries in Abuja, Calabar and Ekiti with national rates applied to the country’s population. Salako has also said cancer now kills more Africans each year than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. That is the minister’s claim, and The Eastern Update has not independently verified it.
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Shinkafi-Bagudu’s route to the presidency runs through Nigeria’s own patient-support work. She founded the Medicaid Cancer Foundation in 2009, and the UICC’s profile of her says the foundation has raised more than $2 million to close gaps in cancer care. A consultant pediatrician and former first lady of Kebbi State, she belongs to the Nigerian Cancer Society and the American Society for Clinical Oncology, serves on the UICC board, and extends her advocacy through the First Ladies Against Cancer initiative.
When members elected her in 2024, President Bola Tinubu congratulated her through his spokesman, Bayo Onanuga. He described her as the first African and the fifth woman to lead the global body and called her election a landmark for Nigeria in international health leadership.
The Nigerian Cancer Society framed this week’s development in terms of access. In its announcement, the Society said her tenure gives cancer patients and survivors in underserved countries a louder voice in international policy, and it expressed hope that survival would stop depending on where a patient lives or what a family can pay. The Society noted that financial constraints and gaps in health infrastructure routinely delay diagnosis and treatment in low- and middle-income countries. Its president and chief executive, Prof. Abidemi Omonisi, congratulated her and said he expects the presidency to strengthen global solidarity and speed progress toward equitable prevention and care.
The Society also treated the appointment as a prompt for domestic action, calling on governments, health institutions, development partners and advocacy groups to turn the milestone into partnerships and practical programs, particularly in underserved communities. It pledged continued cooperation with national, regional and international partners on public education, research and capacity building.
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According to reporting compiled by The Eastern Update, the UICC is governed by its member organizations, which meet in a general assembly every two years. Between assemblies a board of 16 directors serves as the executive body. The president is elected to a two-year term, chairs the board and oversees governance, while Dr. Cary Adams serves as chief executive. The 2026 assembly was also set to elect a new president-elect from three listed candidates, Gilberto de Lima Lopes Junior of the United States, Asem Mansour of Jordan and C.S. Pramesh of India, and to fill 14 board seats from a shortlist of 24. Only full members may vote. The outcome of those ballots was not available in material reviewed by The Eastern Update.
Nigeria’s policy calendar overlaps with her term. Salako has said the country developed a National Cancer Control Plan covering 2026 to 2030 and a National Nuclear Medicine Policy and Strategic Plan, and that a national task force on cervical cancer elimination aims to screen at least half of eligible women by 2027 and treat every precancerous lesion detected. The government is also implementing a National Cancer Health Fund, he said, and backing the Nigerian Cancer Society’s private-sector-led Cancer Intervention Fund to ease the financial burden on patients and families.
The UICC was founded in 1933 and counts more than 1,100 member organizations in over 170 countries and territories.
