Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, says Nigeria is seeking a waiver of intellectual property rights on COVID vaccine.
Charles Akpan, the ministry’s deputy director of press and
public relations, in a statement, quoted Ngige as saying when he hosted Vanessa
Phala, the new International Labour Organisation (ILO) country director for
Nigeria and English-speaking West Africa, at his office on Friday.
There have been calls for the waiver of intellectual
property rights to boost production of COVID-19 vaccine and promote vaccine
equity.
Ngige said the ILO needs to support Nigeria in its demand to help developing countries tackle the spread of the virus and enhance economic recovery.
“Nigeria is in the league of countries who want the
intellectual property rights as it relates to COVID-19 vaccines be waived so
that developing countries can manufacture them to fight the pandemic,” he said.
Ngige said Nigeria needs more assistance from the ILO in the
area of job creation.
He commended Dennis Zulu, the immediate past ILO country
director, for the efforts towards the emergence of Nigeria as a regular member
of the ILO governing board on June 11, 2021.
The minister informed the ILO team that Nigeria is adapting
to the changing dynamics in the world of work, which led to the domestication
of the ILO conventions and repealed some of the obsolete labour laws which are
currently undergoing review.
“We have moved from retreat held in Lagos, where the
tripartite partners participated and now, further working on the outcome of
that retreat and harmonising in-house, before transmitting to the Federal
Executive Council and finally, to the National Assembly,” he said.
“We have got everybody, the lawmakers on board after initial
setback through adequate liaison with the National Assembly Committee on
Labour. We are hopeful that after the recess of the National Assembly, final
legislative work on the review will commence.
“We are hopeful the ILO will carve a special place for
Nigeria so that we can make impact in the area of job creation. We need to
create jobs here . We are battling unemployment and the figure of 33% is mind
boggling. By the time you add the underemployed, you are getting about 35%.
“We want to put on
record the assistance and the working relationship we enjoyed with your
predecessor, the Director General and the Regional Director for Africa. Their
unceasing support all through the years was instrumental to the election of
Nigeria into the Governing Board of the ILO.
“It is quite heartwarming that after nearly seven years
absence, we came back to the Governing Board as a titular in 2017 under my
tenure. While serving as titular, they found us worthy to be the President of
the Government Group of the ILO Governing Board between 2019- 2021. And now
this year, barely fortnight ago, we were voted in again, this time, to the
highest membership of the Governing Board as a Regular.”
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