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NIPRD Director General, Dr Obi Peter Adigwe, said the institute was in the process of finalising a US$26 million grant (approximately P342 million) from the Global Fund to set up one of the region’s first bioinformatics and genomics sequencing laboratory.

Dr Adigwe who met with UB management to discuss possible ways and areas of collaboration between the two institutions, said one of the agreements for the grant was assurance that the laboratory would be be used by other institutions across Africa.

Therefore, he said NIPRD identified Botswana as one of the first countries in southern Africa that should benefit from the laboratory through collaboration with the University of Botswana given its wealth of expertise in the science field. The other is South Africa.

Dr Adigwe added that the University of Botswana was identified for the sole reason that in the process of developing “African solutions for African problems”, NIPRD always looked for like-minded partners across Africa with the potential to add value to the projects they undertake. The motivation to choose the University of Botswana, therefore, he said was also borne from the desire to have presence in every region in Africa in that NIPRD currently has presence only in north Africa where in partnership with Egypt, were developing Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) which is the most important part of developing any medicine. The other partnerships are with four of the 16 countries in the ECOWAS region as well as Rwanda and South Sudan in east Africa, said Dr Adigwe, adding that they were also in the process of working with Kenya and Tanzania.

“In southern Africa we have already established some partnerships with South Africa but I told my team that it’s not enough, we need Botswana,” said Dr Adigwe. He noted that Botswana was chosen because of its political pedigree and its ability to develop capacity in creating a value chain for people to benefit from the mining sector.

Dr Adigwe underscored the need for Africa to develop its own API manufacturing capacity following lessons learnt during COVID-19 when some developed countries resorted to vaccine nationalism. Countries such as China and India who are the world’s biggest API producers banned its export to Africa as demand for their people outstripped supply.  To that end, Dr Adigwe said NIPRD was in the process of setting up one of Africa’s first nanotechnology laboratories to look into drug discovery and phytomedicinal development.

NIPRD is a government parastatal under Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health. The institute has been charged with the responsibility for research and development of drugs, vaccines, phytomedicines, commodities, and diagnostics aimed at improving sustainable access to safe, affordable and high-quality healthcare. NIPRD also undertakes activities relating to capacity building, policymaking, data collation, drug distribution and the development of contextual partnerships that can expedite access to healthcare. NIPRD was designated a Center of Excellence (CoE) in the African Sub-region in research and development of drugs, vaccines, phytomedicines, and diagnostics towards improving the health and well-being of Nigerians and mankind by the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDi) in 2011.

The institute is looking for Pan African partnerships to help build capacity in Africa so that the continent does not have to rely on the west for scientific interventions. The University of Botswana which has been identified as one such ideal partner in southern Africa is currently involved in the development of vaccines for Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) and Lumpy skin disease as well as drug from medicinal plants.

Vice Chancellor, Professor Norris, acknowledged the great strides that UB had made in testing plant materials but regretted that such had not gone beyond vaccine development. He further lamented that Africa lost a lot of Intellectual Property “because we test all these plant materials but don’t get involved in the value chain”. Consequently, he said collaboration with NIPRD will help in building capacity that will not only benefit Botswana but the rest of Africa. Professor Norris reckoned that development of FMD vaccine was very important to protect the beef industry given that beef contributed significantly to the country’s economy as well as the livelihoods of Batswana.