States should lead in economic recovery and sustainable growth
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By Kayode Fayemi
ONE of the most significant consequences of the global public health crisis, the novel coronavirus, was the adverse effect that it had on economies around the world.
As the world faced the greatest public health challenge in most of our lifetimes, we also grappled with the economic effects of lockdowns: limited travel and economic activity, and especially, for oil producing countries like Nigeria, the rapid decline in crude oil prices.
Our economic condition was worsened not just by the decline in oil prices, but the weather and security challenges that hurt agriculture, the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. This meant we suffered the double whammy of lower government revenues, driven by the crash in oil price; while shocks in critical sectors also meant a contraction in the economy.
The Nigerian government recently released N10 billion (about US$26 million) in support of the local production of COVID-19 vaccines. Wale Fatade, from The Conversation Africa, asked Daniel Oladimeji Oluwayelu, a professor of virology, for his views on this and how the country can get full benefits from the money.
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SADE OGUNTOLA reports that experts in the country are divided over COVID-19 vaccines and drugs as some believe that government should encourage local researchers to produce them locally, just as some local production of vaccines would take years to happen during which many more Nigerians would have died.
The COVID-19 pandemic has surely ravaged the whole world raking up unexpected mortality figures. Surprisingly, Africa has been largely spared, taking into consideration the number of fatalities recorded on the entire continent which is far lower than the reported figures in some individual countries in Europe.
However, while the vaccine has become available in Europe and America since December 2020 and inoculation has started in earnest, Nigeria, like many African countries, is still waiting for its first consignment of vaccines slated for late January, even as the death toll surges.