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Nigeria has called for a continental shift towards health security sovereignty, urging African countries to reduce dependence on foreign aid and build self-sufficient health systems.
Nigeria’s Vice President Kashim Shettima made the call on Friday during a high-level side event on “Building Africa’s Health Security Sovereignty,” held on the margins of the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis Ababa.
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The event also marked the formal launch of the Africa Health Security and Sovereignty Initiative, a collaboration between Nigeria and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to mobilise investment in health workforce development, community health systems and sustainable immunisation programmes.
According to a statement signed by Stanley Nkwocha, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Communications (Office of the Vice President), Mr Shettima said Africa must strengthen its domestic capacity.
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He said this is to ensure the continent’s health systems are no longer subjected to disruptions in global supply chains or shifting international priorities.
“Our health security cannot remain subject to the uncertainties of distant supply chains or the shifting priorities of global panic,” he said, warning that endurance alone cannot substitute for deliberate investments in capacity.
Lessons from COVID-19
Mr Shettima said the COVID-19 pandemic exposed the continent’s vulnerability when many countries struggled to access vaccines, oxygen and essential medical supplies as wealthier nations prioritised domestic needs.
He explained that health security must be treated as both a national and continental priority, noting that diseases and counterfeit medicines do not respect borders.
“There is dignity in endurance, but endurance is not a strategy,” he said.
“Leadership is measured not by how long vulnerability can be withstood, but by how deliberately we reduce it.”
Nigeria’s reform agenda
Mr Shettima outlined measures Nigeria is adopting to strengthen its health system, including boosting domestic health financing, expanding local pharmaceutical manufacturing and tightening regulatory oversight.
He referenced the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, launched in December 2023, which secured over $2.2 billion in commitments to revitalise more than 17,000 primary healthcare centres, train 120,000 frontline health workers and expand health insurance coverage.
He also highlighted efforts to strengthen epidemic intelligence and emergency preparedness through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, including expansion of laboratory networks and genomic surveillance.
To curb the circulation of substandard medicines, he said Nigeria has intensified enforcement under the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), by upgrading quality-control laboratories and streamlining compliance processes for manufacturers.
The government , he noted, is also implementing the Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain to remove structural bottlenecks facing domestic pharmaceutical manufacturers and attract investment into local drug production, diagnostics and biotechnology research.
Mr Shettima stressed that private sector participation would be central to achieving health sovereignty across the continent.
Continental support
At the event, the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Pate, said Nigeria is strengthening its health workforce database and investing in capacity-building initiatives to address disparities in the distribution of health workers between rural and urban areas.
Mr Pate highlighted government efforts to build a reliable health workforce database and enhance workforce capabilities to handle complex health situations.
He noted that these measures are aimed at helping stakeholders bridge gaps in the rural-urban distribution of health workers across Nigeria.
Also speaking at the event, the Director-General of the Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya, commended Nigeria’s leadership in advancing health system reforms and immunisation programmes, but warned that Africa continues to face shortages of skilled health workers and fragile community health systems.
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Health ministers from Senegal, Malawi and Ethiopia expressed support for the initiative, pledging to strengthen workforce development and community health systems in their respective countries.
Representatives of the African Union Commission, Gavi and UNICEF also backed the programme.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the forum, African ministers of health and finance called for increased domestic financing for health workforce development and community health systems, and urged progress towards the continental target of deploying two million community health workers by 2030.
