With the difficulties posed with the closure of boarders by countries as a result of the dreaded Coronavirus, the need to develop locally made vaccines became expedient in several countries so says the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.
To this end, they have set up plans to improve and develop local production of Medicines (The Traditional Herbs) and other products such as the Facemasks and hand sanitizers in the subregion.
The Commissioner for Industry and Private Sector Promotion, Mr. Mamadou Traore declared during the joint committee meeting on Macroeconomic Policy and research/administration, finance and budget/health which was held virtually at the ongoing second extraordinary session of the ECOWAS Parliament. He advocated the need to develop the capacity for local production of vaccines in the countries.
“When the countries closed their borders there was no way for us to get medicines from elsewhere, we needed to have indigenous products to use. So today we need to be able to develop the capacity for local production of vaccines in the region”.
With regard to the standardization of COVID-19 protocol items such as face masks and hand sanitisers he said that the Council of Ministers will soon adopt the standards received from the International Standards Organisation (ISO), the European Union, France and the United States.
He stated that Actualization of the regional products certification project (ECOSO) to standardize, certify and make products made in the region to be competitive and meet international standards can be achieved through the extension of support grant of Euro 121million to investors/member states by way of training and provision of necessary equipment to aid the process.
“We need to produce competitive products. There will be certification, to make them safe, usable and tested in laboratories. We are going to support countries through training and equipment. We need to give information to general public” Traore said.
The Commissioner also advised the ECOWAS Council of Ministers to ensure that borders should be opened based on solid technical advice and not purely on political exigencies.
This is coming against his disclosure that the ECOWAS Ministers of Transportation have been meeting to discuss the rationale and modalities for easing and opening of borders across the region.
“Some countries in the region are already using the standardized ones. You must have the right dimensions, colourings, textiles, these indicators are already there. By the time it is validated, ownership to it becomes automatic”.
According to him, “most of our countries import over 85% of their health needs from India, China, Europe, US and this is a challenge. A lot of initiatives have been taken in the region by the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) and they are working with investors to produce indigenous products for us in the region”.
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