Nigeria Champions Health Sovereignty at AU Summit

Nigeria has called on African nations to prioritise health security sovereignty by developing self-reliant, homegrown health systems that reduce dependence on foreign aid and fragile global supply chains.

Speaking at a high-level side event during the 39th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, Vice President Kashim Shettima urged the continent to build its own capacity to protect its people through local manufacturing, workforce development, and sustainable health financing.

“We stand ready to collaborate with every member state of our Union to make health security sovereignty measurable in factories commissioned, laboratories accredited and health workers trained,” he said. “We must build a continent that can heal itself.”

Representing President Bola Tinubu at the summit, Shettima warned that the COVID-19 pandemic laid bare Africa’s vulnerability when global supply chains collapsed, leaving the continent scrambling for vaccines and medical essentials.

He stressed that “health security is national security,” noting that pandemics and counterfeit medicines do not respect borders.

The Vice President outlined reforms under the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, which has secured over $2.2 billion in commitments to renovate more than 17,000 primary healthcare centres, train 120,000 frontline health workers, and expand health insurance coverage nationwide.

He added that Nigeria is strengthening epidemic preparedness through the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and enhancing regulatory oversight via the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to combat substandard and falsified medicines.

The administration is also promoting domestic pharmaceutical production under the Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain.

Earlier, Coordinating Minister of Health, Muhammad Ali Pate, thanked partners including the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the African Union Commission for supporting efforts to strengthen the continent’s health workforce and emergency readiness.

Director-General of Africa CDC, Jean Kaseya, acknowledged the continent’s shortages of skilled health workers and fragmented investments, calling for greater regional coordination.

Health ministers from Senegal, Malawi, and Ethiopia pledged support for workforce expansion and stronger community health systems.

In a communiqué issued at the conclusion of the forum, ministers called on African leaders and development partners to increase sustained investment in Human Resources for Health and accelerate progress toward deploying two million community health workers by 2030. They emphasised that robust community health systems remain central to primary healthcare, universal health coverage, and pandemic preparedness across the continent.