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The Central Bank of Nigeria said that it received over 286 proposals from the public for grants under its Healthcare Sector Research and Development Intervention Scheme.

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this at the award of grants for the HSRDIS in Abuja.

Under the HSRDIS, grants are provided to researchers and healthcare institutions for the development of vaccines, drugs and herbal medicines.

Emefiele said this could help curtail the spread of COVID-19 and any other communicable or non-communicable diseases.

He said the scheme, which was part of the bank’s policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic, aimed at prompting intense research and development activities towards developing vaccines and drugs against the spread of other communicable and non-communicable diseases.

The CBN boss said, “Following the submission of over 286 proposals from the general public, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the body of experts for finding time out of their busy schedule to review and evaluate the proposals.

“So far 68 proposals have been evaluated, out of which five proposals with significant merits valued at N253.54m were recommended by the experts for financing.

“Some of the recommended proposals also have the potential to enable the development of the Nigerian vaccine for COVID-19.”

Emefiele congratulated the recipients of the award for their efforts in working to develop solutions to some of the healthcare challenges.

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He noted that most of the recipients were from the academia, a sector that had lacked funding for research.

He further noted that the review of proposals was still ongoing, adding that the bank was expecting the committee to provide recommendations for an additional award of grants in due course.