Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, says scientists in the country have produced two vaccines which are ready for clinical trials.
The minister said this on Saturday at the closing ceremony of the Technology and Innovation Expo in Abuja.
He said the government is mobilizing resources to enable it to take the vaccines to clinical trials, after which he said it will be ready for entrepreneurs who can reproduce them.
The minister said the Health Ministry is looking to place one primary health centre in every political ward in the country.
Ehanire said: “The Ministry of Health is honored to be able to work with the Ministry of Science and Technology. We have been able to work on vaccines; we have at least two candidate vaccines which we are looking for resources to take to the level of clinical trials and after the clinical trials to entrepreneurs who will now boost the production of the vaccines.
“At the Ministry of Health, we are looking to place one primary health centre in every political ward. I will like to say that we have over 4000 at the moment with about 6000 to go; many of them will be in the rural areas and we will have to work with the building research agency to find the lowest costing of building using domestic technology and resources to be able to construct a large number of primary health care centres at a cost that will be affordable to us.
“I am happy to inform you that the output of our past four editions of the expo have led to the creation of many micro and small scale businesses in our dear country. I invite the Organised Private Sector (OPS), to take advantage of the research results and prototypes showcased at the expo to create jobs for the people, reduce poverty and crime in the country as well as create wealth for both themselves and the nation.”
