President Muhammadu Buhari has said Nigerian would work with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other countries to help develop and manufacture safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for Africa.
The president stated this during his participation at the virtual 34th ordinary session of the African Union from the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He stated that the country also welcomed the decision to establish the coronavirus African Vaccine Acquisition Capacity to accelerate the financing and procurement of coronavirus vaccines for the continent.
Buhari said, “We continue to appreciate the remarkable progress by the team with respect to securing a provisional 270 million coronavirus vaccines doses for Africa along with Africa Medical Supply platform and other laudable initiatives already in place.
“In my capacity as ECOWAS Champion on Coronavirus, Nigeria has provided logistics support, including the freight in of critical COVID-19 medical supplies distributed to other ECOWAS member states.
“At the national level and in the fallout of the coronavirus outbreak in Nigeria, we prioritise the vulnerable, including women, children, older persons and the unemployed in our efforts to provide medical and social assistance to mitigate the socio-economic effects of the disease.
“I would like to stress that Nigeria is committed to working with other member states in the spirit of regional cooperation and solidarity to promote human health and general wellbeing.
“We will continue to partner with the World Health Organisation, the African Centre for Disease Control and West African Health Organisation as well as other countries to ensure accelerated development and manufacturing as well as unhindered supply of safe and effective coronavirus vaccines to all Africans.”