Vaccine Production: Nigeria has achieved 210 of 240 requirements – NAFDAC

Nigeria is ready to meet the World Health Organisation (WHO) benchmark requirements needed to commence the manufacturing of vaccines in Nigeria, as it has achieved nearly 90% of the requirements so far.

This was disclosed by the Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, in an interview with Channels TV on Sunday.

What the NAFDAC boss said

“What we are doing right now is try to make sure that African countries have the capacity to manufacture vaccines.

However, to be able to manufacture vaccines, NAFDAC has to be strong enough to control. We have 240 requirements, quality system requirements that have to be met.

As of a week ago, we had about 30 left. This is the WHO ISO9004 Global Benchmark. They are coming in 3 weeks, and we have already sent them everything we have,” she said.

Adeyeye also added that the WHO will need to see Nigeria has achieved the benchmarks needed to start manufacturing vaccines.

What you should know

Nairametrics reported last month that the World Health Organization, alongside its COVAX vaccines partners, announced a plan to establish its first COVID mRNA vaccine technology transfer hub.

WHO disclosed that the hub would be based in South Africa, following its call in April 2021 for an Expression of Interest to build COVID mRNA vaccine technology transfer hubs in Africa and scale up production and access to COVID vaccines.