Nigeria, Africa should have capacity to manufacture vaccines – Okonjo-Iweala

Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has said Nigeria and the rest of Africa must build on their capacity to manufacture vaccines.

She said this when she visited the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, in Abuja on Tuesday.

The visit was a follow-up to the 12th WTO ministerial conference that took place in Geneva, Switzerland.

Okonjo-Iweala was received by the Minister of State for Trade, Mariam Katagum.

According to her, it was not good that Africa imported 99 per cent of its vaccines and 95 per cent of pharmaceutical products.

“We should have our capacity to manufacture vaccines. We are also looking at extending it to include therapeutics and diagnostics,” she said.

On the sidelines, Okonjo-Iweala said the WTO is committing about N12 billion to fisheries development in Nigeria and other member countries as part of efforts to prohibit harmful fisheries subsidies.

“At the end of World Trade Ministerial Conference, which ended in June, we adopted six major resolutions, but the most important is that which has to do with fisheries subsidies which have been unsuccessful for the past 21 years, but this year we were able to agree on that aspect.

“Consequently, we are committing about $20 million to our fisheries fund to fast-track legal fisheries development and curb illegal subsidies.

“Nigeria is part of the deal and I came to ensure implementation is in top gear because it is a crucial step in moving the world’s fisheries toward long-term sustainability and in multilateral efforts to address subsidies that harm the natural environment and the well-being of vulnerable communities,” she said.

Okonjo-Iweala added that with the adoption of the agreement, the WTO now prohibits subsidies for vessels and operators engaged in illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing and establishes new rules for subsidies for the fishing of stocks that are already over-exploited.