The Federal Government has affirmed its readiness to provide a policy document to advance Local Production of Vaccines (LPV).
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, said this when he received a team from the National Immunisation Financing Task (NIFT) on Tuesday in Abuja.
Onu ordered the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) to promptly utilise its facilities to proffer beneficiary research documents as a policy to improve LPV in the country.
NABDA is an agency under the ministry that has the mandate to produce vaccines.
He said the ministry would also offer its support to any other stakeholder that had relevant agenda to the ministry`s vision.
Onu stated that the ministry was intensifying effort to ensure that the nation moved from resource based to knowledge based economy.
Earlier, Chairman of NIFT, Dr Ben Anyene, urged the minister to produce a draft policy document to shape the LPV and a business plan to make a case for LPV to private sector investors.
Anyene stated that the goal of NIFT was to help Nigeria to achieve sustainable immunisation financing.
The chairman said vaccines save lives and money, but regretted that a large funding gap threatens the Nigerian vaccine programme.
“About 28 per cent of under-five deaths are attributable to diseases for which there are vaccines.
“And every year, seven million newborns in Nigeria requiring vaccination to protect them from vaccine preventable diseases never get immunised.
“Possible solutions to sustainable immunisation funding are necessary by increasing federal budget for immunisation.
“And also getting states to contribute to vaccine procurement (co-funding) and establishing an Immunization Fund (PPP),’’ he said. (NAN)