Nigeria Ready to Work with AU for Continental Health Security, says Shettima

Vice-President Kashim Shettima says Nigeria is ready to work with all African Union (AU) member states to achieve continental health security and sovereignty.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 39th AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Friday, Shettima said Nigeria’s proposal was driven by the need to ensure that Africans’ health is not left vulnerable to distant supply chains or shifting global priorities.

“Nigeria stands ready to collaborate with every member state of our Union to make health security sovereignty measurable in factories commissioned, laboratories accredited, health workers trained, counterfeit markets 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 an interconnected continent, national security is continental security.

“A virus, as we have witnessed, does not carry a passport. A counterfeit medicine does not respect a border. A pandemic does not wait for
bureaucracy.”

The vice-president noted that Nigeria is focusing on boosting local manufacturing of ER pharmaceuticals, increasing domestic health financing, and strengthening regulatory oversight as part of efforts to improve national health outcomes.

“Nigeria has approached this challenge with seriousness under the leadership of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. In December 2023, we launched the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, securing over 2.2 billion dollars in health-sector commitments anchored in measurable outcomes,” he said.

Shettima added that the country is also “upgrading quality-control laboratories, tightening enforcement against substandard and falsified 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 the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to mobilise investment in health workforce development, community health systems and sustainable immunisation programmes.