BUA Group has revealed that it has purchased a million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for Nigeria, with delivery pegged for next week.
According to a press statement, the vaccines which will be delivered any moment from the coming week were purchased by the leading Foods and Infrastructure conglomerate, through AFREXIM Vaccine programme in partnership with CACOVID.
The move which sets Nigeria on the long lists of the countries awaiting the delivery of the vaccines, however, sets BUA Group as the first company in the country to take such a giant stride in the fight against the ravaging COVID-19 disease.
The group added that the vaccines, which is the first set of vaccines to be delivered to Nigeria since the onset of the pandemic, will be made available to the general public immediately after delivery, and distributed to Nigerians at no cost.
What they are saying
The founder of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, who commented on the recent move by the Group towards the mass vaccination of Nigerians, said:
“BUA decided to secure these 1million vaccines by paying the full amount for the vaccines today because these vaccines became available only last week through AFREXIM.”
“We expect the vaccines to be delivered within the next 14 days and hope priority will be given to our frontline workers who have committed their lives to managing the pandemic.”
“BUA is committing to purchase 5 million doses for Nigeria as soon as they become available through this same arrangement in partnership with CACOVID and Afrexim Bank.”
What you should know
- The Governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), Dr. Kayode Fayemi revealed that about 80 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines will be made available in the country, to immunize 40% of the Nigerian population this year.
- The Head of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Faisal Shuaib said that Nigeria 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.
- Nairametrics had earlier reported that The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire announced that Nigeria would take delivery of 15 million vaccines from COVAX in February from AstraZeneca under the COVAX programme.
- Recently, South Africa decided to suspend the rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine over limited protection against new coronavirus variant.