‘Nigeria’s Vaccine production plant ready in 2024’

Indonesia’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Usra Harahap, yesterday, held a crucial discussion with top executives of Biovaccines Nigeria Limited, a Joint Venture (JV) between the Federal Government and May & Baker Nigeria Plc in Lagos, on the status of their existing partnership and the modality of scaling up the country’s vaccine production capability.

“This is part of the gradual build-up to vaccine manufacturing in Nigeria. The ambassador alluded to the fact that we were supposed to do the groundbreaking of the greenfield production facility in 2019. We explained that the plan was shifted because of the extension of the Gavi support for the Nigeria vaccine till 2028. 

“The country was supposed to graduate from the support in 2021. The entire business plan of Biovaccines was thrown into the box. We had to go back to the government to get the details of the extension to develop a new business plan, which we are implementing. With the new plan, we will do groundbreaking in Q4 this year. But that will also depend on the approval we are expecting from the Ministry of Health,” he said.

Harahap said Indonesia “is willing to work with Nigeria to develop the needed local capacity” to achieve vaccine sovereignty in no distant time. He noted that the Nigeria-Indonesia relationship has come a long, adding that the two countries have a lot to gain from each other.
  
The ambassador said Indonesia was also in discussion with the Ministry of Health about some other important areas of collaboration, highlighting the need for the two countries to achieve a balance of trade.

According to him, the strategic partnership was important for bridging the supply gap and building local production capacity.