The Nigerian government expects over 40 million vaccines from the African Union before the end of April, as it also expects to source vaccines from India and Russia.
This was disclosed by the head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib in a Reuters report on Monday evening.
Dr. Shuaib disclosed that Nigeria’s request from the African Union has increased 4 times after the AU increased its vaccine capacity from 270 million to 400 million.
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“We have applied for 41 million doses of a combination of Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines,” Shuaib said.
He added that Nigeria’s vaccine request includes 7.6 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 15.3 million of the AstraZeneca vaccine and 18.4 million of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The NPHCDA boss said that the vaccines are expected to arrive by the end of April, citing that Nigeria will explore multiple options for payments including a finance plan through the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to pay off within 5-7 years.
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What you should know
- Recall Nairametrics reported that the African Union secured 270 million Covid-19 vaccine doses for the continent from drug manufacturers to supplement the COVAX programme.
- Last week, the AU secured another 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in a bid to immunize 60% of the continent in 3 years.
- Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, also said that Nigeria is expected to receive the first batch of (15 million) COVID-19 vaccines by February from AstraZeneca under the COVAX programme.
