Buhari Welcomes Choice of Nigeria for Vaccine Manufacturing

19 Feb Buhari Welcomes Choice of Nigeria for Vaccine Manufacturing

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday in Brussels, Belgium, welcomed the designation of Nigeria as one of the six countries in Africa designated as manufacturing bases for the COVID-19 vaccine and called for collaboration to address the effects of the pandemic.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), on Friday, announced Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia as recipients of the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines.

In a statement issued on Friday, by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, President Buhari said “With the addition of Nigeria to the four countries earlier approved for the vaccine production on the continent, efforts by the Buhari administration to change the selection that the country considered unrepresentative of the needs, capabilities and population distribution in Africa has thus yielded the desired result.”

In his contribution to the Roundtable on Health Systems and Vaccine Production at the ongoing 6th Europe-Africa Summit, President Buhari said: “I am delighted to receive the news of the selection of Nigeria among recipients of MRNA Vaccine technology transfer. We shall ensure the best use is made of the opportunity. Nigeria also offers to host the Bio-manufacturing Training hub proposed by World Health Organisation (WHO). We commit to providing support to make the hub functional in the shortest possible time.

“Accordingly, we are prioritising the manufacture of vaccines on the African continent and in the sharing and transfer of technology and intellectual property rights. We call on the EU to support the WTO, towards the conclusion of negotiations on intellectual property rights’ waiver to ensure that the manufacturing of vaccines can start early in Africa.”

While commending the efforts of the foreign partners in making the Covid-19 vaccine available, he urged them to do more as less than 10 percent of the African population had gotten the jab, stressing that this situation could negatively affect Africa’s developmental projections.