Nigeria Govt May Spend Over N540bn On COVID-19 Vaccines
LAGOS DECEMBER 20TH (NEWSRANGERS)-Nigeria may spend about $1.4bn (N540.4bn, at the official exchange rate of $1: N386) to procure and distribute 218,400,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Sunday PUNCH has learnt.
The figure is based on estimates of the World Health Organisation as regards the total amount of funds that Africa would need to pursue a vaccination drive.
According to the WHO, Africa will need at least $9bn (N3.4tn) to procure and distribute 1.4 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines.
This development comes as Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his Edo State counterpart, Godwin Obaseki; as well as the wife of Osun State Governor, Mrs Kafayat Oyetola, among others, have expressed worry over the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid rising cases and deaths in the past few weeks.
WHO to partner AU, W’Bank, Afrexim Bank to support Nigeria, others
Meanwhile, the Immunisation and Vaccines Development Programme Coordinator, WHO, Dr Richard Mihigo, has said it will partner institutions such as the African Union, World Bank and others to roll out the COVID-19 vaccination in Africa.
Responding to a question posed by SUNDAY PUNCH newspaper at the WHO Africa online press briefing last week, Mihigo said, “We will definitely need to vaccinate between 60 to 70 per cent of the African population.
“So, if you consider that we have about 1.2 to 1.3 billion people on the African continent and you take 60 per cent of that with the assumption that you will need maybe two doses per population, we are talking about close to 1.3 to 1.4 billion vaccine doses that will be needed to immunise 60 per cent of the people in Africa to reach herd immunity.”
Speaking further, Mihigo explained that it was not just about the cost of the vaccines but the cost of delivering them and ensuring that they got to the right locations.
He added that there were no guarantees that there would be enough supplies before the end of 2021.
The WHO official stated, “So if we compute that number with the preliminary information that we are getting with these vaccine manufacturers because it is not only the cost of the vaccines. There are also additional costs that are needed to deliver those vaccines.
“We know very well that the preliminary rough estimation that is being done, we may need up to $9bn. So, this is a lot of money, a lot of funding that will be needed. First of all, we are not sure that we are going to get enough supply to immunise everybody (in Africa) by the end of 2021.”
Nigeria, which has an estimated population of 203 million people, is Africa’s most populous country and constitutes 15.6 per cent of the entire population of the continent.
Based on the WHO’s estimates on how much it would cost Africa per head, Nigeria may require about $1.4bn to procure and distribute 218,400,000 doses of COVID-19 for double doses for 60 per cent of its population.
It was, however, learnt that there were ongoing discussions with the African Union to work with other multilateral or development banks like the World Bank and Afrexim Bank to mobilise resources for African countries, including Nigeria.
Punch
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Posted by News Rangers
on Dec 20 2020. Filed under National.
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