On Tuesday, the lower house of parliament voted unanimously to allow a bill seeking to establish the Nigerian Centre for Vaccine Research and Development, to be fine-tuned and passed into law.

The centre will be used for research and for the local production of vaccines.

Last year, the government approved 10bn naira ($24m, £17.7m) for development of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The health minister explained that vaccines to be produced would also be for other infectious diseases and possible future epidemics.