GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, has announced that it was committing $1 billion to support vaccine manufacturing in Nigeria and other African countries through the African Vaccine Manufacturing Accelerator (AVMA).
Sania Nishtar, GAVI’s CEO, announced this commitment during her visit to a Primary Health Centre in a community in Abuja, accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Health and the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA).
Part of her visit to Nigeria is to access the state of PHCs, particularly in rural areas and delivery of basic services including vaccination.
While reiterating the readiness of GAVI to support Nigeria’s manufacturing vaccines and tackle zero-dose vaccination among children, she said, “We are very pleased to have initialized the programme called African vaccine manufacturing accelerator which is basically an advanced market commitment to the tune of $1bn when Africa starts producing.”
The AVMA recently approved by the GAVI board is designed to make funding available over the next ten years to support the sustainable growth of Africa’s manufacturing base, which has the potential to not only contribute to healthy global vaccine markets but also benefit outbreak and pandemic prevention, preparedness, response and resilience.
“Our role is to shape the market to make vaccine manufacturing viable, affordable and of quality within the African continent”, Nishtar stressed.
The GAVI CEO further restated the commitment of the Vaccine Alliance to work with the Nigerian government to ensure that every child is vaccinated to prevent vaccine-preventable diseases.
She also assured the Gavi will remain committed to ensuring that PHCs in Nigeria have the necessary facilities to work while stressing that “PHC is the backbone of healthcare delivery.”
Speaking on her visit she said “I looked at how the cold chain equipment works, how the services are integrated in the facility because PHC has to deliver all services and not just vaccination. I got a sense of how the laboratory service works and what test they provide, the capacity for indoor care, maternal and child healthcare.”
Muyi Aina, executive director/CEO, NPHCDA, while highlighting the importance of the visit of the GAVI CEO noted that vaccine-preventable diseases are one of the top causes of mortality especially among children because the country’s vaccine routine immunization programme is not where it should be yet.
He therefore stated that the continued partnership with GAVI Is critical in addressing the health burden by ensuring access to vaccines at a subsidized cost.
Aina said the visit of the GAVI CEO is at the request of the minister of health so that she would first-hand the impact of their work in Nigeria.
The NPHCDA boss further informed that the government is working on new approaches to reach children who have not received any vaccination in the country.
