Kayode ShopekanAs Nigeria battles with growing cases of COVID-19, President Muhammadu Buhari has disclosed that the country is working to develop a vaccine to prevent the spread of the virus.
Buhari stated this during an interview he granted which was televised on Thursday by the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA).
Health experts say Nigeria needs to triple its vaccination drive to over 100,000 doses a day in order to meet its target of inoculating more than half of its population by the end of next year.
The West African country has been exploring options to acquire or purchase vaccines through the COVAX facility to enable it inoculate at least 70 percent of its population.
Some months ago, it received vaccine donations some of which had a shelf life of only a few weeks left to be administered before they expired. This resulted in the destruction of more than one million expired vaccine doses last month.
“We are working very hard with the ministry of health to develop vaccines,” Buhari said during the interview.
“We shouldn’t make noise about it until we succeed,” he added.
Though relatively low compared to other countries in Europe, America, and other parts of Asia, Nigeria has recorded 245,404 COVID-19 cases and 3,058 deaths since the pandemic started.
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In 2017, Nigeria’s cabinet approved a plan to produce basic vaccines with a pharmaceutical firm, May & Baker (M&B) Nigeria (MAYBAKE.LG) through a joint venture. It’s not clear whether the project took off.
The president said his administration is encouraging Nigerians to get vaccinated. Statistical data show that fewer than 4 percent of adults in Africa’s most populous nation of over 200 million have been fully vaccinated.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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