Nigeria requires at least $500 million per year to carry out concrete research in the health sector, says Nigeria COVID-19 Research Coalition (NCRC) project manager Popoola Ayo.
Mr. Ayo, who unveiled this at the first anniversary of the research colloquium in Abuja on Monday, pointed out that the requirement in terms of funding for research in the country is $5 billion.
He noted that there is a proposal from the African Union for African countries to set aside one percent of their GDP as a contribution for research and development (R&D) for national growth.
“Currently our national GDP is trending at around $450 to $500 billion and one percent of this is around $5 billion,” he said.
He said that the health sector alone needs no less than $500 million per year to have concrete research that can have an impact on the economy.
“For the first time in the country, we are capitalizing triple for R&D, which is an interface between the government, the private sector and academia, and we are focusing on people,” he explained.
NCRC
The NCRC was established by the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH) in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) and key stakeholders to generate research evidence to help understand the COVID-19 pandemic and support Nigeria’s response to the current outbreak.
NCRC Research Colloquium
The research coalition has members from over 50 institutions and provides a national platform to coordinate research on COVID-19 in Nigeria.
The NCRC also developed a national COVID-19 research agenda that identifies national research priorities in line with the World Health Organization Research roadmap on COVID-19.
In accordance with this, the NCRC said there is a need to review the country’s gains, losses, and lessons in COVID-19 research from different subject areas including, but not limited to: diagnosis, transmission, and epidemiology, social and behavioral research, health systems, and Infection, Prevention and Control (IPC).
An epidemiologist, Ehimario Igumbor, said the goal of the colloquium is to showcase high-quality research on COVID-19 conducted in Nigeria that is relevant both locally and globally; identify gaps in the research landscape regarding COVID-19 and other health emergencies, and chart a course for health research priorities in Nigeria.
The event was theme; “Two Years On: Gains, Losses and Lessons in Nigeria’s COVID-19 Research”.
Sustainable financing
NCRC National Coordinator Chinwe Ochu calls for sustainable funding for epidemic and pandemic disease research in the country.
Ms. Ochu said that the federal government, private sectors and international partners must increase funding for epidemic and pandemic control.
“Research funding remains extremely low, hence the calls for improvement,” he said.
He said more deliberate coordination of research in Nigeria is needed to maximize the efficiency and impact of research in the country, based on identified research needs and priorities in the country.
“We urge researchers to increase the development and conduct of indigenous research, tailored to country realities to guide policymaking and programming.
She said; “Studies on complex ecological health phenomena such as the COVID-19 pandemic need to adopt an integrated multidisciplinary syndemic framework to understand their true burden.
“We recommend capacity development and transfer by strengthening local capacity for complex multisectoral research methodologies through the lens of implementation and translational research.”
epidemic control
Ms. Ochu noted that it is important for researchers to increase studies using the One Health approach in the country.
He also advocated for an increase in sponsorship of local and African magazines, as these magazines strive to achieve the highest possible industry standards when it comes to publishing high-quality peer-reviewed content.
“We recommend the application of the ‘quadruple helix model’ that incorporates government, research institutions, industry and health consumers in the co-production and dissemination of research to maximize the pace, importance and impact of scientific evidence. for action.” she said.
In his remarks, the director general of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), Tunde Salako, said that the organization has supported the COVID-19 pandemic in many ways.
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Salako, who is also president of the NCRC, said he has also helped support case detection and surveillance.