Nigeria has resources to produce COVID-19 vaccines—Expert

Dr Okai Aku, Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN) on Tuesday said Nigeria had the human and material resources to deliver on the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines.

Aku, a public health expert, said this in an interview with the Newsmen in Abuja.

It was recalledthat recently World Health Organization (WHO) announced Nigeria as one of the first six countries to receive support for local vaccine production.

The other countries are countries are: Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia.

While commending WHO for the gesture, Aku said: “Nigeria has the political will and everything it takes to manufacture the vaccine, I am optimistic we will deliver.

“Even if the human resources are lacking, we can bring in technology from other countries to manufacture it.”

The PPFN Executive Director said that reliance on other countries to supply of COVID-19 vaccines was inimical to the goal of universal health coverage.

He said the best way to address health emergencies and reach universal health coverage was to significantly increase the capacity of all regions to manufacture their health products.