FG to commercialize NVRI animal vaccines production facility

The Federal Government has inaugurated a project delivery team for the commercialization of the animal vaccines production facility of the National Veterinary Research Institute (NVRI) in Vom, Plateau State.

Members of the team include Dr SA Anzaku, Dr Bright Watergire, Yahaya Suleiman O, Mrs Abimbola Lawal-Are and the institute CEO, Dr David Shamaki.

Others are drawn from Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Agency (ICRA), Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) and Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC).

Inaugurating the team yesterday in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Mohammed Bello Umar, said the process will strengthen the institution, which according to him, already supplying vaccines to other countries.

“I will like to emphasize here that this process of the commercialization of NVRI vaccines production facility is in tandem with the Federal Government’s Livestock Transformation agenda and economic diversification.

“I, therefore, implore the team to handle it in a most transparent manner, ensuring compliance with due process but also speedily to ensure timely completion of the process,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary worried that despite the huge potentials in the vaccines production capability of the institute, the production has been abysmally low.

Dr Umar stressed that he was “aware that the previous management of the institute had tried to set up a vaccine company in the past to ameliorate the situation but the process was not only slow and frustrating but was not carried to successful completion.”

The National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom was established in 1924 with the mandate to among others conduct research into all aspects of animal diseases, their treatment and control.