The Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF) has disclosed that the Federal Government has teamed up with May & Baker, a drug manufacturer, for the production of COVID-19 vaccines.

This was made known on Thursday by Ifeanyi Okowa, Delta State Governor, while briefing members of the National Economic Council (NEC) during its virtual meeting.

Okowa said the country is already in partnership with the drug manufacturer with the possibility of producing COVID-19 vaccines locally.

He said, “Nigeria and May and Baker are already in partnership for quite some time now, in trying to ensure that we are able to produce vaccines locally.

“And they are already looking very closely at that; and how to partner either the approved vaccine producers or to relate with those vaccines that are still in the process to see what we can do to start to produce vaccines.

“A lot of work is also being done locally; the details of which is not yet available, but we do know that Prof. Oyewale Tomori is working very closely with some of the institutions we have in the country to see the possibility of us beginning to produce vaccines at the moment.’’

The partnership which is being led by Professor Oyewale Tomori, according to the governor will be fruitful, adding that the country also seeks to partner with other globally approved ones like the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine for outsourcing the production.

“There could be the outsourcing of the production of some of these vaccines. And we hope that we can become part of those that will have the outsourcing to produce some of these vaccines, because there are so many of them that are still in the process of seeking approval,” he added.

Kayode Fayemi, Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of the NGF, said Nigeria is among the 12 countries in Africa that has indicated readiness in arrangement with the World Health Organization (WHO) and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) “to facilitate pooled procurement and the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines across developing countries. Nigeria is among 12 countries in Africa that have indicated readiness of the 92 qualified countries for the facility and will by end of February 2021 receive its first shipment of vaccines.”

Also the governor disclosed that the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the agency likely to coordinate the deployment of the vaccines in the country, “has indicated that vaccines will be administered in four phases, based on vaccine type and availability, initially for frontline health workers, then the aged (55yrs and above), persons with underlying medical conditions and other target groups