The Nigerian government has asked the organised private sector to invest in local production of vaccines, as it lacks the financial capacity to embark on the project alone.

The Minister of State for Health, Mr Osagie Ehanire, made the call in Abuja on Tuesday at a forum organised to discuss local vaccine production financing.

According to him, the recent re-basing of the nation’s economy has taken Nigeria off the list of poor countries that benefit from free vaccines donated by development partners.

He stressed that the development had heightened the need to kick start local production.

The conveners of the meeting expressed displeasure with the inability of the nation to produce the yellow fever vaccines which it had produced in the past, saying that the vaccine laboratory in Yaba, Lagos State, is in comatose.

The Executive Director National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Ado Mohammed, said that the meeting was one of government’s efforts to ensure local production of vaccines.

A former Minister of Health, Professor Eyitayo Lambo, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the manner the government had handled similar initiatives since 1997 under the Olusegun Obasanjo regime.

He hopes things will be different this time around.

The Federal Government spend over 2.5 billion Naira annually for vaccines importation, a burden it says it can no longer bear alone.