Nigeria has not manufactured a single human vaccine since 1993, according to the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), exposing a decades-long dependence on overseas suppliers that business leaders and regulators now say the country must urgently reverse.
The disclosure came as billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote, represented by his daughter Fatima Dangote, called for a new approach to healthcare in which Nigeria and other African countries move from being consumers of imported medical products to producers of medicines, vaccines and advanced therapies.
Speaking at the launch of Atunse Healthcare Limited and the African Regenerative Medicine and Longevity Summit in Lagos on Friday, Dangote said Africa’s dependence on foreign healthcare supplies had become a strategic vulnerability, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains and exposed unequal access to vaccines, diagnostics, medicines and other essential technologies.
“Dependence is a vulnerability. Resilience requires capacity and medical sovereignty is not a slogan. It is a matter of survival, dignity and strategic security,” Dangote said in a speech delivered on his behalf.
