Nigeria Health Minister Olurunimbe Mamora has announced the development of a much faster cheap Covid-19 test kit.

Known as SARS-COV-2 Isothermal Molecular Assay, the testing kit was developed by Nigeria’s Institute of Medical Research.

Though the kit is yet to be approved by regulatory bodies, it has raised hopes of boosting the country’s low testing rate.

The head of Nigeria’s task force on Covid-19 response, Boss Mustapha, during a media briefing said that the kit was Nigeria’s contribution to the fight against the global pandemic through scientific research.

The health authorities said the test kits will be distributed soon to communities – after a validation process – to boost testing across the country to replace the imported PCR testing method for coronavirus testing currently being used.

Nigeria has so far tested just over 500,000 people out of its population of around 200 million.

It has recorded more than 58,000 coronavirus cases with more than 1,000 deaths. The number of daily confirmed infections is declining.