The Chinese government has said it perfecting plans to work with Nigerian government to produce 400 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines in the country.
The Chinese government has donated millions of doses of its Sinopharm and Sinovac to many countries, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
But the Nigerian government has not approved the vaccines for use in the country.
Nigeria has not taken up its offer of 7.7 million doses of the Chinese vaccine through the COVAX scheme aimed at providing vaccines to developing countries.
The Chinese Government had also in July 2021 offered 470,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to Nigeria, but the offer was not taken up.
But this may change as Mr Cui Jianchun, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Nigeria, said plans are underway to lead Nigeria in producing the Chinese COVID-19 vaccines country soon.
Cui disclosed this in Abuja at a round table organized by the Center for China Studies (CCS) themed ‘Build an African-China Community with a Shared Future in the New Era: Nigeria’s Actions and Contributions’
The round table aimed at reflecting on the opportunities of the recent outcomes of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation which held in Dakar, Senegal.
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Cui said that the development of vaccine production is in line with China’s commitments of leading Nigeria and other Africa countries to self-reliant and to close the immunization gap.
Cui said that the move was in line with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent remarks during the Eight Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).
He said that President Xi Jinping during the FOCAC Ministerial meeting said that the Chinese Government would work with Chinese companies and Africans would be involved to work together to produce 400 million vaccines in Nigeria.
He said:
At the opening ceremony of the FOCAC Conference, President Xi Jinping announced another one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa.
Of which 600 million doses will be in form of donation and the other 400 million doses will be jointly produced in Africa by Chinese and African companies.
This is a powerful message of China and Africa working together to close the immunization gap.
He said that he personally believed it was high time the two countries utilise the opportunity to not only to produce vaccines for this pandemic.
Cui said:
We are preparing to do more research to meet the future demands against the pandemic.
Discussions were underway and the two sides are meeting over how to cooperate in the production line.
I think that in the coming months, you will know the exact news, the information on how can the two countries work together.
Cui also noted that the idea of producing the COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria is possible and feasible, saying that there was the need to build trust between the two governments.
Director for the CCS, Charles Onunaiju, appreciated the Chinese government for its continuous support towards the development of Nigeria and Africa without any selfish interest.
