Experts converge on Benin, seek to manufacture African made COVID-19 vaccine

Worried by the absence of the African made COVID-19 vaccine, the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA) has started an advocacy and collaboration among African countries and universities that will lead to the kick-starting of researches into the production of a vaccine for the dreaded disease.

Speaking with journalists weekend in Benin, the executive director of CoDA, Ms Souad Aden-Osman, said that the development of vaccine and the improvement of the health care system should be private sector-driven with the government in African countries coming together to create an enabling environment.

Flanked by Alhaji Mandir Ahmed, the president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Aden-Osman lamented that there is resistance to the acceptance of vaccines against the global pandemic by most African countries because they are manufactured outside the continent coupled with the attendant conspiracy theories.

Aden-Osman disclosed that participants at an international workshop which comes up today at Igbinedion University, Okada, near Benin, Edo State are expected to initiate processes that would lead to the production of vaccines in Africa.

Besides, she disclosed that an Independent Task Team on the Development of Vaccines and Equitable Universal Access to Vaccines and Vaccination in Africa will also be launched on the day of the workshop to ensure that measures were designed to prepare the continent to face any future global health challenge.

She said: “We must make sure the private sector comes in forcefully. We need to believe in ourselves. The same energy used to chase out colonial masters should be used to battle the pandemic and any future health challenge.”

Sounding optimistic, the executive director said that Africa has the scientists to drive the course and will partner with scientists from other parts of the world to record success.

She noted that not even the environment, lack of electricity and some other problems will hinder CoDA’s desire to provide lasting solutions to health problems in Africa.

Aden-Osman added that Nigeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, Algeria, Senegal have the capacity to produce vaccines while so many others are ready to also be part of it.

She said: “The current pandemic should trigger the need to work together because if it doesn’t, I don’t know what will.”

Alhaji Ahmed said the continent has the capacity to produce what Africans need and consume what the people produce if the right steps are taken.

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Experts converge on Benin, seek to manufacture African made COVID-19 vaccine