The Federal Government has announced that Nigeria is about to receive 1.4 million doses of vaccines donated by MTN. The FG also announced that India plans to donate 100,000 vaccines to Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the Health Minister, Dr Osagie Ehanire, at the daily PTF briefing on COVID-19, in Abuja.
The Minister said that the first batch of the MTN vaccines would be delivered before the end of the month, and the rest would be completed by March 2021.
“The balance of 900,000 doses for Nigeria is expected by the end of March 2021. Other sources of vaccines are under negotiation,” he said.
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The Minister also disclosed that the Indian Government planned to donate 100,000 vaccines to Nigeria.
“I received a message from His Excellency, the High Commissioner of India, giving 100,000 AstraZeneca or covishield vaccine doses, also by the Serum Institute of India, as a gift of the government of India to Nigeria.
“These gestures of goodwill and partnership are appreciated by the people of Nigeria,” he said.
The Minister urged that all vaccines entering the country must pass through the Federal Government.
“It is important to stress that all COVID-19 vaccines carry a certain amount of risk and any vaccine not approved by the Federal Ministry of Health through its agencies cannot be used in Nigeria.
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“The government will not be responsible for the safety or efficacy of vaccines given outside the framework of the government. All the needs of Nigeria have been carefully calculated by NPHCDA and it is possible to accommodate all interests in the framework,” the Minister said.
He added that Nigeria had completed its account opening with the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team.
“With regards to the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team, AVATT, Nigeria this morning completed her account opening.
“It was signed by two officials each, of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Finance, Budget & National Planning, at Afrexim Bank as a requirement for access to vaccines on that platform,” he added.
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What you should know
MTN announced last month that it made a donation of US$25 million to support the African Union’s COVID-19 vaccination programme.
- The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, had earlier announced that the first batch of 15 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, which is from AstraZeneca under the COVAX programme, is expected to be available from February.
- This is coming after the African Union (AU)’s African Vaccines had allocated 42 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Nigeria.
- Also, the Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said the Nigerian government expected over 41 million vaccines from the African Union before the end of April, as it also expected to source vaccines from India and Russia.
- The UK Government has revealed that the Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) had announced that Nigeria would be one of the first countries to receive 16 million free doses of Covid-19 vaccines through the COVAX Global Vaccines Facility.
- BUA Group revealed that it had purchased a million doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for Nigeria, with delivery to be made soon.
