The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) said it has recorded success in the first phase of the viral Ribonucleic Acid (RNA) extraction which would enable local production of cheap testing kits for COVID-19.
According to National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) Director-General, Prof. Alex Akpa, the validation was carried out at NABDA laboratory in Abuja.
Akpa, on Thursday, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the success was important development and “shall enable us to massively produce test kits so that more people would be tested for COVID-19, not only in Nigeria but in Africa”.
He said that the immediate aim is to “produce reagents for real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), and remember, recently the lack of reagents stalled work in Kano and molecular diagnosis could no longer take place.”
Akpa added that the project was a Pan-African project whose partners include Ethiopia, NCDC and the University of Sheffield, U.K., among others with funding to come from African Development Bank.
Speaking, Dr Ndodo Nnaemeka, Chief Molecular Bioengineer, National Reference Laboratory of NCDC, hailed the new development.
Nnaemeka said it was designed to solve the problem of RNA extraction kit which had become a global issue.
The official noted that there were serious concerns for the need to have more extraction kits in-country and that there was growing demand worldwide for extraction kits.
“The western world prioritizes their own interest first by making sure that they meet their local needs before exporting to other countries, so there was really need for it,’’ he said.
