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Business News of Sunday, 7 June 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

CBN releases guidelines to fund healthcare projects

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele

The Central Bank has released guidelines for the disbursement of grants for the purpose of healthcare development.

The Healthcare Sector Research and Development Intervention Scheme was designed to trigger intense activities in developing a Nigerian vaccine, drugs and herbal medicines against the spread of COVID-19 and any other disease.

"Candidate vaccines undergoing pre-clinical testing or trials shall not be eligible for consideration under this Scheme. However, candidate vaccines undergoing clinical testing or trials shall be eligible for consideration under the Scheme if considered to have high potential to cross the clinical trial stage and prospects of scale by the Body of Experts," the statement released by the Apex bank read in part.

Applicants seeking this grant must have conducted preclinical testing of the candidate drugs, and obtained certification from relevant health authorities for further research. The bank promised to dedicated more attention to drugs which would contribute to the development of a Nigerian vaccine.

Grant seekers can gain between 50 million to N500 million to fund their ideas. Research activities will be granted a maximum of N50 million while development and manufacturing will get a maximum of N500 million.