The World Trade Organization (WTO) has said Nigeria and Africa want to develop their production capacity to produce vaccines.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said on Tuesday his stopover at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment in Abuja as a follow-up to the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference that took place. in Geneva, Switzerland.
Okonjo-Iweala said it is not smart for Africa to import 99 percent of its vaccines and 95 percent of its pharmaceuticals.
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He added that the restrictions imposed by developed countries on vaccines for emerging countries open the eyes of affected countries.
Okonjo-Iweala further said that the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has established provisions for any country with the ability to void patent rights and manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine, encouraging Nigeria to seize this opportunity.
“We have our ability to make vaccines. We are also contemplating expanding it to include therapies and diagnostics,” he said.