Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has expressed that the country should start a discussion on how to ramp up capacity to be able to manufacture vaccines locally.
Recall that the country is expected to take delivery of some 100,000 vaccine shots by the end of January.
He canvassed for more government funding to curb increase in the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Osinbajo stated this on Thursday at a virtual meeting with top government officials and a group of Nigerian scientists.
He stressed that the pandemic provided an opportunity to ramp up public health infrastructure in Nigeria while government should be doing more in the area of funding.
Also Read: No COVID-19 Scare In Anambra Government House – Obiano’s Aide
The Vice President said, “I think that we must be talking now about local vaccine production, improving the training of laboratory scientists, and generally improving our capacity to respond in various ways.
“We must really focus on the opportunities that this period really gives us. What I have noticed is that unless something like this happens, we are very frequently relaxed and just hope for the best. I think we are in a position now where we can do a lot. In fact, there is an opportunity to do more in terms of government funding.
“So, I think this is a major responsibility for us, the government, at this time, to really look at how we can, at least, do much better in terms of preparing young men and women for the challenges ahead. This point was also made about the quality of laboratory scientists and the quality of medical personnel and paramedics and all that.”