Cui Jianchun, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Nigeria, says plans are underway to lead Nigeria in producing the Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in the country soon.

Mr Jianchun disclosed this on Tuesday, in Abuja at a roundtable organised by the Center for China Studies (CCS) themed ‘Build an African-China Community with a Shared Future in the New Era: Nigeria’s Actions and Contributions’. 

The roundtable aimed at reflecting on the opportunities of the recent outcomes of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation which held in Dakar, Senegal.

The envoy said the development of vaccine production is in line with China’s commitments of leading Nigeria and other Africa countries to self-reliant and to close the immunisation gap.

He said that the move was in line with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s recent remarks during the Eight Ministerial Meeting of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

“At the opening ceremony of the FOCAC Conference, President Xi Jinping announced another one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa.

“Of which 600 million doses will be in form of donation and the other 400 million doses will be jointly produced in Africa by Chinese and African companies.

“This is a powerful message of China and Africa working together to close the immunization gap,” Mr Jianchun said.

He said that he personally believed it was high time for the two countries to utilise this opportunity to produce vaccines for this pandemic. 

“We are preparing to do more research to meet the future demands against the pandemic,” he said.

“I think that in the coming months, you will know the exact news, the information on how can the two countries work together,” the envoy added.

(NAN)