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Nigerian government is now locally producing ventilators and disinfectant spraying devices, according to a statement released in Abuja, this week, by the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, announced that the ventilators and other devices were produced by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), according to the statement signed by ministry’s spokesperson, Olusegun Ayeoyenika.
According to the statement: “Aside the ventilators which aid COVID-19 patients in breathing, NASENI had manufactured sprayer devices ranging from NASENI-Safety Tunnel (O shape), NASENI-Single Disinfectant Chamber, Disinfectant Delivery on KEKE NASENI (tricycle), Disinfectant delivery device on Hilux, Disinfectant delivery device on Tanker and the environmental disinfectant blower.”
NASENI, an agency under the ministry, has mandate for research, development and the manufacturing of capital goods, machines and equipment.
Plateau State, other stakeholders go local on production of ventilators
AS Nigeria’s COVID-19 infectious cases spike nationwide, NASENI and other stakeholders including state governments have increasingly focus on producing essential products at curtailing the disease.
In Plateau State, Governor Simon Lalong has engaged an engineering team to produce ventilators and similarly commissioned another team which successfully resuscitated broken down ventilators at the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) to enhance the state’s capacity to fight the disease.
This week, Plateau goes into lockdown for a week beginning Thursday, April to Wednesday, April 16, 2020 to allow a statewide fumigation.
Also, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, this week in Abuja, while updating the media on action-plans to fight COVID-19 said government was already talking with local auto firms to produce ventilators.
Adebayo said local production of ventilators had become imperative to address the COVID-19 pandemic. Manufacturers are being asked to remodel their processes for production of critical machines such as ventilators.
