Nigeria ready to work with AU for continental health security, says Shettima

Vice-President Kashim Shettima says Nigeria is ready to workwith all African Union (AU) member states to achieve continental healthsecurity and sovereignty. Speaking on the sidelines of the 39th AU summit in AddisAbaba, Ethiopia, on Friday, Shettima said Nigeria’s proposal was driven by theneed to ensure that Africans’ health is not left vulnerable to distant supplychains or shifting global priorities. “Nigeria stands ready to collaborate with every member stateof our Union to make health security sovereignty measurable in factoriescommissioned, laboratories accredited, health workers trained, counterfeitmarkets dismantled, and insurance coverage expanded,” the vice-president said,according to a statement issued by Stanley Nkwocha, his spokesperson. “Health security is national security, and in aninterconnected continent, national security is continental security. “A virus, as we have witnessed, does not carry a passport. Acounterfeit medicine does not respect a border. A pandemic does not wait for bureaucracy.” The vice-president noted that Nigeria is focusing onboosting local manufacturing of ER pharmaceuticals, increasing domestic healthfinancing, and strengthening regulatory oversight as part of efforts to improvenational health outcomes. “Nigeria has approached this challenge with seriousnessunder the leadership of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. InDecember 2023, we launched the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal InvestmentInitiative, securing over 2.2 billion dollars in health-sector commitmentsanchored in measurable outcomes,” he said. Shettima added that the country is also “upgradingquality-control laboratories, tightening enforcement against substandard andfalsified medicines, and streamlining processes for compliant manufacturers”. The event also marked the formal launch of the Africa Health Security and Sovereignty Initiative, a collaboration between Nigeria and theAfrica Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to mobilise investment inhealth workforce development, community health systems and sustainableimmunisation programmes.

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