In the first weeks of the COVID-19 outbreak, I worked with others to set up capabilities to detect the disease at our National Reference Laboratory in Abuja, and at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. These cities are the main points of entry into Nigeria — the most populous country in Africa. We detected the country’s first case of the coronavirus on 27 February, in Lagos. That Nigerian researchers could act without having to wait for external partners has made my country, and the world, safer.