Nigeria has what it takes to be leader in healthcare, says Osinbajo
(Nigeria) Nigeria must take its own destiny in its hands,
build local capacities that will ensure health access to the people, and take
advantage of the opportunity to become a leading nation in healthcare.
This is the submission of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN,
who is of the firm belief that there are already clear indications that
"we are well on the way," to getting the job done.
Speaking today in Abuja at the International Conference on
Health Access beyond COVID-19, Prof. Osinbajo highlighted the country’s
strengths in the areas of healthcare while emphasising major steps the country
needs to take in order to improve its heath system.
According to him, one of the eye openers from the COVID-19
pandemic "is that despite infrastructural weaknesses we have an
experienced and robust public health system, peopled by some of the best
personnel in the world, but more importantly (is) the huge opportunities for
becoming a leading nation in healthcare.”
Buttressing his point on building local capacity, the VP
noted that the pandemic revealed further that *“every nation is on her own in a
global pandemic, and how vaccine-rich nations at some point even banned exports
in order to meet local needs, it is clear that we must take our destiny in our
own hands. And there is great potential.
“Last December, the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research,
NIMR, launched a new set of COVID-19 test kits that can produce results in 57
minutes. The new kit was designed by Joseph Shaibu, a molecular virologist at
NIMR.”
The VP declared that “the healthcare system of our dreams is
ahead of us, we know what we want and what is possible. We have the men and
women with the required expertise; what we need is more diligent and focused
management.
“Only recently the President established the Healthcare
Reform committee which I have the privilege of chairing. That may well be at
least one of the vehicles for ensuring that we are able to get some of our
dreams comes true."
Establishing the health sector reform committee is one of
the ways the President Muhammadu Buhari Administration is making concerted
efforts towards transforming the country’s health sector.
According to the VP, other ongoing
measures include funding for healthcare research and developing solutions in
pharmaceuticals and medical consumables; and the health sector component of the
Economic Sustainability Plan, ESP.
“It is evident that the way forward is more funding for
health care research and for innovators to develop solutions in pharmaceuticals
and medical consumables, the VP disclosed.
He continued: "Our administration established the
Healthcare Sector Intervention Fund Facility which has disbursed N76.98 billion
to finance the acquisition and installation of critical medical equipment as
well as the expansion of production lines in various pharmaceutical companies
across the country.
“The Central Bank of Nigeria is also supporting a number of
research and development initiatives in the health sector. In all, a total of
N233 billion in grants has been disbursed.”
“In our Economic Sustainability Plan, designed to mitigate
and take advantage of the consequences of the pandemic. One of the
cross-cutting issues identified for action was the development of Nigeria’s
capacity to become Africa’s hub for the manufacture of generic drugs.”
Prof. Osinbajo further emphasized government’s commitment in
supporting pharmaceutical and research agencies to develop and manufacture
vaccines locally, and so enhance Nigeria’s domestic pharmaceutical capacity.
“In his Independence Day speech, the President also noted
that the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority is raising a $200 million fund
for this initiative that will complement the Central Bank of Nigeria’s ongoing
N85 billion Healthcare Sector Research and Development Intervention Scheme to
support local researchers in the development of vaccines and drugs to combat
communicable and non-communicable diseases, including COVID-19," the Vice
President restated.
He further explained that Nigeria‘s existing public health
infrastructure was crucial in helping the country respond effectively to the
global pandemic.
“The Ebola outbreak of 2014 and our ongoing battle with
Lassa fever and our successes with polio eradication helped us to tighten our
epidemic contingency plans, strengthen our emergency coordination and
surveillance capacities, and also to invest in public health
laboratories," he asserted.
Also, he recalled that during the Ebola outbreak in West
Africa, between 2014 to 2016, "the first case in Nigeria was confirmed and
sequenced at the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious
Diseases, ACEGID, The Center was also instrumental to containing the epidemic
in the sub-region by the development of a 15-minute Rapid Diagnostics. This
method was approved by the World Health Organization and the Food and Drug
Administration, FDA of the US government.
“One of the key lessons we learned from our response to the
Ebola outbreak was the need to build systems in ‘peace time’ that can be used
during outbreaks. The Nigeria Centre for
Disease Control (NCDC) which was founded in 2011 was made an independent
government agency in 2018 as we prioritised the strengthening of our public
health infrastructure… it is evident that the NCDC is one of the best prepared
and resourced, at least in Africa.”
He also acknowledged the impressive work of the ACEGID, at Redeemers
University in Ede, Osun State Nigeria. The ACEGID team led by Prof. Christian
Happi analysed the sample of the first COVID-19 case in Nigeria, and
sub-Saharan Africa.
In recognition of the work of Nigerian scientists by
international bodies, VP Osinbajo added that, “Prof. Happi and his team have
also produced a ground breaking rapid test, certified by the Food and Drug
Administration, FDA of the US government. It costs around $3, much less than
Polymerase Chain Reaction, PCR, tests. In addition, the test does not require
highly equipped laboratories that tend to be too expensive. But more remarkably
they are developing a Nigerian anti-Covid vaccine.
The VP also noted the work of the Africa Centre of
Excellence for Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology, ACENTDFB,
led by Professor Y.K Ibrahim, which he said has been performing mass testing.
“In collaboration with the Kaduna State Government and its University Teaching
Hospital, they established a facility
where COVID-19 samples are analysed. The facility is part of the Nigeria CDC
national testing centers,” he added.
According to the Vice President, “we were able to scale up
on testing and case management capacity, quickly activating 120 laboratories
nationwide - from 5 just before the pandemic – most of them public
laboratories. Also, we expanded the footprint of our sovereign public health
response capabilities especially at the subnational levels and in areas where
previously such capabilities did not exist.”
Prof. Osinbajo also noted the widely acclaimed work of the
Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, in coordinating the national response,
commending the effort led by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr.
Boss Mustapha.
“The task force swiftly issued and enforced COVID-19
protocols for travel and general movement. When the first doses of vaccines
came, the task force developed the protocols and the public health system
already used to mass vaccination campaigns, deployed across the country in
every nook and cranny of Nigeria so that the first eligible vaccine candidates
received their vaccinations seamlessly,” he said.
Furthermore, Prof. Osinbajo commended the work of the
National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRD, which
hosted the conference for developing a standardized hand-sanitizer and made the
formula publicly accessible for mass production.
Going forward, the VP stated that African countries must
take proactive approach in responding to the slow pace of getting access to COVID-19
vaccines.
“Although we have received some help from friendly nations
and the Covax alliance, less than 4% of our eligible population will have been
vaccinated by the end of the year. There is no question that we cannot afford
not to have our own vaccine production facilities,” he stated.
The VP also called for a private sector-led initiative to
make the country self-sufficient in basic drugs and in being a net exporter to
Africa, noting, again, that Nigeria has the human capital to build a more efficient
health care system.
For instance, he disclosed that "Nigeria is in talks
with the World Bank’s private lending arm and other lenders to raise about $30
million to help finance a vaccine plant, Biovaccines Nigeria Ltd. Chaired by
Prof. Oyewale Tomori; 49% of the company owned by the Nigerian government, with
the balance held by May & Baker Nigeria Plc. There are plans to begin
construction of the plant in the first quarter of next year."
Earlier in his speech, the VP listed other lessons learned
from the global pandemic such as the unpreparedness of more developed countries
to the pandemic and the public health crises that followed; the need to
persuade both the educated and non-educated citizen on taking precautions to
prevent infection; false information and the danger of conspiracy theories
about the COVID-19 vaccine; and the reason why individual countries need to
take responsibility in locally tackling a global health crisis.
As the VP noted, “these eye-openers should be a guide as to
navigating the pathway to assuring health access and socio-economic development
beyond Covid 19.”
The conference themed “Health Access and Social-Economic
Development Beyond COVID-19: The First Multisectoral Approach to Solution
Finding” is a two-day event that has several Nigerian scientists and Vice
Chancellors in attendance. Emeritus Professor of Virology, Prof. Oyewale Tomori
was also present.
Other speakers at the ceremony where the VP declared the conference opened included the Director-General of the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Research and Development, NIPRD, Dr. Obi Adigwe; NAFDAC Director- General, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye and the keynote speaker, Prof. Joseph Fortunak of the Howard University, who titled his lecture: Assuring Health Access and Socio-economic Development Beyond COVID-19.
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