The Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun, has said China and Nigeria are in the process of ensuring the production of COVID-19 vaccines in the country.
He made the disclosure yesterday at a roundtable with the theme ‘Build an African-China Community with a Shared Future in the New Era: Nigeria’s Actions and Contributions’ organised by the Centre for China Studies (CCS).
Thew envoy said both countries had no problem in cooperating in the donation of Chinese vaccines, saying that the second issue on the table between the two countries was how to build production line in Nigeria.
Cui added that the move was in tandem with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent remarks during the Eight Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that the Chinese Government will work with Chinese companies and Africans will be involved to work together to produce 400 million vaccines in Nigeria.
“I personally believe it is high time for the two countries to utilise this opportunity to not only to produce vaccines for this pandemic, we are preparing to do more research to meet the future demands against the pandemic,” Cui said.
Asked at what stage both countries were on the production line, Cui said discussions were underway and the two sides were meeting over how to cooperate in the production line.
“I think that in the coming months, you will know the exact news, the information on how can the two countries work together,” Cui added.
On if the idea was realisable, Cui said the idea of producing COVID-19 vaccines in Nigeria is possible and feasible, saying that there was the need to build trust between the two governments.
Earlier, the Chinese Ambassador noted that donation of vaccines was very important to Nigeria because vaccines cannot be produced in the country.
