FG plans to purchase vaccines for N400 billion – Health Minister

The Minister said that about N400 billion would be required to vaccinate 70 per cent of Nigeria’s 211 million population, at eight dollars per person.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, has stated that Nigeria is ready for its Covid-19 vaccination strategy, revealing that the FG plans to acquire vaccines valued at N400 billion.

The Health Minister disclosed this while briefing the Nigerian Senate on Monday in Abuja.

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Dr. Ehanire added that the N400 billion would be able to vaccinate 70% of Nigeria’s population at $8 per vaccine, explaining that Nigeria would need to spend N156 billion in 2021 and N200 billion in 2022.

Senate President, Ahmad Lawan expressed concerns over the abilities of the Health Ministry to effectively store and distribute the doses in Nigeria.

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Lawan added that the Health Ministry would need to convince the National Assembly that they had the abilities and manpower for the Covid-19 vaccination and that the Senate would be ready to support vaccine funding for Nigeria.

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What you should know about the vaccination plans

Nairametrics reported that Health Minister, Osagie Ehanire, disclosed last week that plans were underway to vaccinate as many people as possible, starting with 20 million doses of the vaccine.
This came after the Federal Government announced last month that it would inaugurate an 18-man Covid-19 Vaccine Task Team, in a bid to ensure vaccine security in Nigeria.
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, earlier disclosed that negotiations were going on with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers to get vaccines early enough to developing countries, including Nigeria, from January next year.

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