President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday in France, urged world leaders and global health institutions to follow a regime of enabling access to the COVID-19 vaccines, admonishing that sidelining countries in terms of reach will undermine the entire effort for safety.
Delivering a keynote statement at the Paris Peace Forum (PPF), President Buhari said export restrictions that encourage needless hoarding of vaccines need to be lifted, while welcoming the pledges by industrialized countries to share vaccines, a statement signed by presidential spokesman Femi Adesina said.
The President said the pledges should be fulfilled in a timely manner, appreciating some countries, like France, that have donated vaccines to developing countries.
“Resolving supply-chain constraints would require better coordination within the manufacturing process; and between manufacturers and end-users,” he said.
“There is a clear need for the expansion of vaccine production capacity in Africa. In this regard, African countries already have a roadmap: the Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Plan for Africa (PMPA) developed in 2007 by the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) on the basis of an African Union Summit decision taken in 2005.