The federal government is set to commence local production
of vaccines as a deliberate effort to save the lives of more than seven million
new born babies in the country.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu,
stated this while receiving the Nigerian Immunization Financing Task Force Team
in his office in Abuja yesterday.
The Minister said the Ministry was determined to lead the
way in the local production of vaccines, saying there was no justification for
the nation to continue to spend on importation of what it could do.
He said: "We used to produce and export vaccines in the
past, Today, we are struggling to be self-sufficient, we need to go back to those
things that helped us in the past.
"We don't want to continually remain a poor nation, and
rather being recipient of grants, we should be able to give grants to other
countries.
"The Federal Ministry of Science and Technology will
lead the way in making sure that vaccines are produced in the country to
satisfy local needs and eventually for export to other African countries."
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