Richard Adegbola, a consultant and research professor at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), has urged West African researchers to engage in focused and competitive research to attract funding.

Mr Adegbola said this at an ongoing three-day annual retreat of the West Africa Network for Tuberculosis, AIDS and Malaria (WANETAM) on Thursday in Lagos.

He noted that most research investigations carried out in the sub-region lacked focus and were unattractive to attract research donors for funding.

He said, “One of the things we complain of in the academics in West Africa is the lack of funds to carry out research because our researchers are not competitive enough to attract funding.

“What we need to do to address this situation is to organise training for researchers to aid the development of our region. Not one single COVID-19 vaccine was tried in West Africa to know its efficacy and safety; we just copied and pasted because it was tried elsewhere.

“We lack the capacity to do that, and that is what WANETAM is doing to train our researchers to carry out work that can generate data that are useful, credible and relevant to what is happening in West Africa.”

The WANETAM was initiated in 2009 by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership.

The body was created to enhance researchers in West Africa on tuberculosis, AIDS and malaria research and conduct clinical trials through training and capacity building.

(NAN)