WHO Targets Nigeria, Five Other African Countries for  Vaccine Production

By Uche Mbah

The World Health Organisation, WHO, has listed Nigeria among the first set of beneficiaries of technology to Africans for the production of their own Vaccines.

This was announced Friday by the WHO Director General, Tedros Adhanom Gbebreyesus, at the ongoing African Union/ European Union summit.

The grant, tagged
“The @WHO mRNA Technology Transfer Hub” , is an initiative geared towards the support of low- and middle-income countries, to encourage them to produce their own vaccines and medicines.

During a visit to Nigeria sometime ago, the head of the World Trade Organisation, WTO, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had advised Nigeria to make concerted efforts to produce their own vaccines in the wake of COVID 19 scourge. But Nigeria has been relying on foreign donors, especially China, to get the vaccines.

At the EU/AU Summit in Belgium, the WHO DG officially announced the first set of African beneficiaries.

On his verified twitter handle, @Dr.Tedros, he said he was delighted to announce the six recipient countries.

“Delighted to announce 6 African countries that will receive technology from the 🇿🇦 hub to produce mRNA vaccines: Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa & Tunisia. @WHO will help develop a roadmap for training & production, based on their needs & capacities. #VaccinEquity”, he tweeted.

“I thank Presidents 🇿🇦 @CyrilRamaphosa, 🇪🇬 @AlsisiOfficial, 🇰🇪 Uhuru Kenyatta, 🇳🇬 @MBuhari, 🇸🇳 @Macky_Sall & 🇹🇳 Kais Saied for their commitment to #VaccinEquity. I look forward to working together to make this project a success, for the healthier & safer & Africa we all want.
“My deep thanks to 🇫🇷 President @EmmanuelMacron, President @CharlesMichel and President @vonderleyen. The leadership and support of the 🇪🇺, the @EU_Commission and the @EUCouncil have all been essential in bringing us to this point.”

President Muhammadu Buhari left Nigeria Belgium on Tuesday for the Summit.