Nation
Covid-19: Nigeria Not Relying On Charity For Vaccines, Minister Clarifies
The Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has debunked the notion that Nigeria is relying on ‘charity’ to vaccinate the population against Covid-19.
The minister made clarifications on Nigeria’s plan to achieve safe and efficacious vaccination of citizens, yesterday, during the second edition of State House weekly ministerial briefing, held in the Aso Rock, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
According to him, Nigeria joined other 52 African countries to open an account with Afreximbank, with the purpose of procuring 570million doses of vaccines for the continent, out of which the country is expecting to receive between 80million and 85million doses of the vaccine
“Now, we are looking to immunise 70% in order to have what is known as herd immunity and the African Union, the African Centre for disease Control recognise that immediately and went to the president of the African Union and said we must set up something to support ourselves as a country because if every country goes to order, Gambia goes, Guinea Bissau says I want this, you have a lot of confusion, they may not listen to you because your order is too small.
“So, therefore, if we all come together, as an African country, we can make order. So, 52 countries in Africa came together. Equatorial Guinea, Seychelles and Gabon said, don’t worry, we can make our own arrangements. Out of 55, 52 came together and joined in the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT), to make a bulk order.
“The first bulk order they made was for 270million doses, which immediately will impress any manufacturer. So, the manufacturers are impressed and they are ready to produce that vaccine with as much priority as possible. Now, in order that we are not looking for money here and there, the Afreximbank said, we shall bankroll it, and then you pay us back so that you are not scrambling looking for money, but those who have money immediately can pay. If you don’t have immediately you can pay over five, seven years. So, that’s a continental agreement and the purpose of it is that you also want your neighbours to be free.
“If we (Nigerians) are fully well vaccinated, Benin Republic, Togo, Niger are not, we are still not quite safe because there’s free movement among all these countries, so it’s in our interest to also see that all these countries are on the same page.
“That’s why the West Africa Health Organisation is also pursuing the same initiative as the African Union and for that we are paying, we have opened an account with Afreximbank, the headquarter of Afreximbank is in Cairo and the account signatories are from both the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance.
“At this point, any organisation that wants to support can pay into that account. We have already spoken with the private sector that if you want to support us, even if you’re looking for vaccines, instead of you going to purchase your own from sources that are not very clear, it can be guaranteed through this account.
“The 270million doses we had before has been increased last week by another 300million. So, we have 570million doses potentially, on that account of AVATT and that’s very good, it will probably grow even beyond that and they are offering four types of vaccines. They are offering Sputnik, of they are offering Johnson and Johnson they are offering AstraZeneca they are offering PfizerBionTech.
“So, you can even choose which one you want, what quantity you want, but normally they allocate according to population, measure your population, this is yours, they have, in fact originally allocated 41million doses to us.
“But with the new additional 300million, it can be up to 80, 85million doses and you can select the mix that you want, and then you start paying into that account. So, we are going to pay into that account, so, we are not depending on charity, we are depending on an arrangement that is existing for low and medium income countries and our own procurement capacity to feel up to the level of want,” he said.
He, however, warned that as a country, Nigeria has been lucky so far but, “we must not stretch our luck. We must continue with our non-pharmaceutical measures.
“We must look at vaccine as a game changer, but make no mistake that it’s a replacement for everything else. It is an additional strategy. Vaccines are an addition to the existing Response, not a Replacement.”
He said the Federal Government plans to provide 10-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in every state of the Federation, as part of strategies to provide critical response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
Ehanire assured that the focus on Covid-19 prevention and treatment would not wipe out the maintenance of normal routine vaccination.
Nation
OYO SUBEB Monitors 2nd Term Unified Exams
Chairman, Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), Dr Nureni Aderemi, has announced the commencement of the board’s monitoring of the second term unified examination in all public primary schools across Oyo State.
Adeniran made this known while inspecting schools in Ibadan North-East Local Government area of the state, Wednesday.
He said the motive behind the examination exercise was to ensure simultaneous participation of all schools in the examination process.
The chairman appealed to school head teachers to ensure adherence to the time-table given to them by the State Government.
He expressed satisfaction with the level of preparedness of schools and students describing it as ‘quite impresive’.
Adeniran, who said the conduct was smooth, added that efforts and arrangements put in place by the State Government in printing unified question-papers for all schools in the state would ensure better performance of pupils.
According to him, the introduction of a unified examination time-table and questions was to give better credence to the exercise.
He further commended the schools and pupils for their adherence to the examination instructions.
The board’s monitoring team visited schools in Ibadan North; Ibarapa; Ibadan North-West, Ibadan South-West and Ibadan South-East Local Government areas.
Nation
VC Advocates Grantsmanship As Condition For Promotion
Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin UNILORIN) Professor Wahab Egbewole, has advocated a restructure of the university system in Nigeria where grantsmanship will be recognised in promotion guidelines.
Egbewole made the suggestion when he received a team of facilitators of the Train The Trainers’ (TTT) workshop on ‘Research Proposal Writing and Grant Management’ in Ilorin, midweek.
Egbewole, who is also a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN)), identified fundable research grants as one of the problems that researchers in Nigeria are battling with.
The Vice Chancellor lamented that some professors in Nigeria did not know how to write research proposals that can attract so much funding.
According to him, this is where the universities have to focus their attention, while expressing optimism that the workshop initiated by TETFund would facilitate the required enablers.
He, therefore, urged the organisers to put up some measurable indices to evaluate the success or otherwise of what has been invested in the training.
He also encouraged researchers to redirect their energy to publications that are impactful to the society and address local challenges instead of publications that are left to decay on the shelf.
The vice chancellor said that UNILORIN would also organise a similar workshop that would accommodate more staff.
Earlier, TETFund TTT team facilitator, Mr Nuhu Ogirima, said the significance of the workshop was to conduct a stepping down of knowledge earlier acquired by the facilitators on fundable research.
Ogirima explained that Nigeria is struggling among the developing nations because most of the policies of the government are not based on research from academia, which makes them unacceptable by the people.
He observed that there is no difference between academic writing, writing for promotion, writing to impact policy and writing to galvanise the economy.
“TETFund has taken a giant stride towards getting cutting edge research sponsored towards advancing the nation”, he said.
Nation
FG Begins Registration Of Medical Laboratories
The Federal Government has begun an online registration of medical laboratories in Nigeria to enhance service delivery.
The Registrar, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, Dr Tosan Erhabor, made this known in Abuja, recently at a meeting with stakeholders and the agency’s consultants on automation led by Prof. Effiong Akpan of the University of Calabar.
He called on stakeholders to avail themselves of the great opportunities offered by the new framework to enhance service delivery.
Erhabor said the registration would scale up efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, speed of service delivery, and data collation and management.
According to him, the purpose of the meeting was to enable stakeholders to witness firsthand and possibly critique the ongoing digitalisation of the medical laboratory registration process.
“This is the latest in the series of council processes to be moved from the manual to the digital platform.
“In spite of our meagre resources, the council has successfully transformed other processes including Licensure, Examination, Indexing, Accreditation Service, and External Quality Assurance and now the registration of medical laboratories”, he said.
Erhabor urged medical laboratory proprietors to continue working with the council to enhance service delivery.
He said proprietors would henceforth be able to register their laboratories seamlessly and from their preferred locations without the need to visit the council’s headquarters in Abuja.
“I am pleased to note that automation has raised our profile among stakeholders, and we must commend the consultants for a job well done”, he said.
Responding, Akpan lauded the council management for scaling up hitherto manual processes into the digital environment to enhance service delivery despite the prevailing economic challenges.
“My team and I are proud to be associated with the council and we encourage other agencies should emulate you in this respect”, he said.
Akpan expressed confidence that the stakeholders would also be proud of the council’s efforts.
Recall that in September 2022, the Federal Government threatened to shut down unregistered medical laboratories in the country.
The council was warned not to relent or rest on its oars in the discharge of its statutory duties.
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