The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has advised the Federal Government of Nigeria against any imposition of lockdown as a result of the discovery of Omicron variant of the COVID-19.
The chamber made this known through its President, Michael Olawale-Cole in Lagos.
“Any imposition of lockdown as a measure to contain and manage the spread of the virus should be avoided at all cost. Nigeria needs a long-term containment strategy and public health action plan to manage epidemics and pandemics without having to lock down the economy”, he said.
“While we celebrate the positive Gross Domestic Product, GDP, growth recorded all through the three quarters of this year, the recovery of the economy from the impact of Covid-19 in 2020 is still fragile. The Government must do everything in its power to sustain the positive growth trajectory towards an inclusive and sustainable growth rate.
“We urge Nigerians to increase compliance with Covid-19 safety protocols, present themselves for vaccination and obey all international travel protocols. We must all work towards a safer Nigeria to avoid any consideration of lockdown or restrictions that could disrupt economic activities”, he advised.
“In the medium to long term, the Government needs to provide the necessary support and enabling environment for the private sector to invest heavily in the manufacture of vaccines that can meet our domestic demand and for export. In the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, this has the potential to be a major source to earn foreign exchange”, stated the LCCI.
“The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry as the voice of the organized private sector in Nigeria, wishes to recommend the following multi pronged approach to further strengthen Nigeria’s response to the Covid 19 virus and the latest discovered strain
“In the short term, considering Nigeria’s low vaccination coverage, we recommend that the Government develop and deploy strategies to get more citizens vaccinated. These strategies need to address both the supply and demand-side challenges to vaccination. On the supply side, there is a need to have constructive engagement directly with vaccine manufacturers and indirectly through the COVAX facility. On the demand side, there is a need to continuously educate citizens on the safety of vaccines and the importance of being vaccinated.
“The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, needs to conduct quick studies on the new variant and advise the Government on the next steps of containment.
“The Government needs to clamp down on any existing vaccine card racketeers who issue fake vaccination cards to outbound travelers from Nigeria to developed countries. Any trace of fake vaccination certificates to Nigeria is damaging to our international reputation. In addition the Government needs to create an intelligence monitoring mechanism to check the utilization of funds allocated to Covid-19 interventions.
The discovery of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus in late November reawakened the concerns of many nations about possible spikes in infection and death rates. Many governments have reacted differently in managing the likely spread of Omicron infections. Travel bans have been imposed on outbound travelers from Nigeria by some countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, has hinted of a possible fourth wave of infections from the Covid-19 pandemic due to the latest discovery of the Omicron variant in Nigeria. Before the discovery of the Omicron variant, the Lagos State Commissioner of Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi had at a press conference on 19th November also raised the alarm of an imminent 4th wave due to the expected increase in inbound travel into Lagos over the yuletide season.
“Scientists, epidemiologists, and the World Health Organization, WHO, have all recommended that the most potent protection against the COVID-19 virus is vaccination. Unfortunately, developing countries have suffered from a lack of access to vaccines and a weak pharmaceutical manufacturing base. In addition, and like in other parts of the world, vaccine hesitancy has been prevalent. Recent statistics from Our World in Data indicate that as of 2nd December, the number of vaccines doses administered in Nigeria was 10.9million, translating to about 1.8 percent of the Nigerian population. South Africa as at 5th December has administered about 26.3million (about 25 percent of the population), Kenya has administered about 7.58million (5.5 percent of the population). Ghana’s vaccination statistics for total doses given stood at 3.5 million, translating to about 2.7 percent of the population.
“The total vaccination in Africa stood at 246.05million as of that date. In comparison with the developed economies, the United Kingdom has administered 116.95million jabs (64 percent), the United States of America 468.34million (almost twice the number for the whole of Africa and about 43 percent of their population), Russia 128.45million (51 percent), while the World’s second most populated country – India has administered 1.26billion vaccines (59 percent).
“We are obviously lagging behind our peers. While we agree with the Federal Government that the travel bans imposed on Nigeria are knee-jerk reactions, the Lagos Chamber wishes to recommend to the Federal Government measures to sustainably manage the Omicron strain.
We wish to emphasize that the Federal Government must take this pandemic as an opportunity to make sustainable changes and improvements in the Nigerian Healthcare sector and accelerate progress towards the achievement of Universal Health Coverage, UHC.
