The Senate leadership was locked in discussion with the executive for over two and half hours on Monday over the readiness of the latter to purchase the Covid-19 vaccines which will gulp N377.6 billion over a period of two years.
The federal government plans to buy the first tranche of the vaccine in 2021 at a cost of N156.7 billion while the second tranche that will come in 2022 will gulp N220.9 billion.
The meeting was presided over by the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and in attendance were Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed; Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire; Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunimbe Mamora; Director-General, Budget and National Planning, Ben Akabueze; Director-General, National Centre for Disease Control, Chikwe Ihekweazu; and Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
The meeting which was summoned at the instance of the Senate leadership was scheduled to ascertain the level of preparedness by the Federal Government towards the purchase of the COVID-19 vaccine and also the plan to administer it on Nigerians across the country.
“Essentially, we want you to tell us how we are going to be able to provide the vaccines in such a manner that the vaccines are not only acquired but remain efficacious and effective, that they are not invalidated because of any challenge in the area of storage or during transportation. And we know ours is a very difficult and sometimes impossible environment.
“Other countries have already started receiving the vaccines, even though I’m not sure if there’s any African country that has received. But if any African country should receive first, it should be Nigeria.
“Alongside these, you should also give us an idea on how we are going to start the vaccination.
“We need to have the strategy of how we intend to do it, so that we don’t run into any chaos.
“That means we need to continue to campaign for our people to continue to use face-masks and hand sanitizers as well as keep to social distancing.
“Because if we have the vaccine, it would take quite sometime before everybody gets it. And before then, we should insist on the protocols because this is a matter of life and death,” Lawan said.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Nigeria’s former Finance Minister had recently assured Nigeria and other African countries of access to the vaccine as from the end of January through the first quarter of 2021. Okonjo-Iweala who is currently the African Union Special Envoy on mobilising international economic support for the continental fight against the deadly virus said GAVI and other agencies would get the Pfizer vaccines and the AstraZeneca to developing and poorer countries in an affordable manner and quickly.
Briefing the Senate leadership, the Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said four holding points had been identified by the agency for storage of the vaccine.
According to him, the locations are Abuja, Lagos, Enugu and Kano.
He disclosed that an ultra-cool system will be provided by GAVI – a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries – at the various locations as part of an initial 20 per cent agreement.
He added that “the vaccine distribution plan has been developed and will be further updated with the micro-planning process as the need arises.”
On the cost implication for purchase of the vaccine, Shuaib said that additional vaccines over the 20 per cent supply agreement to poor countries will be purchased by the Federal Government.
“In terms of the cost of the vaccines, we plan to reach 70 per cent as earlier mentioned by the end of 2022.
“For 2021, GAVI-eligible countries like Nigeria will be supported through the COVAX AMC facility in the procurement of 20 per cent for the total population.
“Any additional vaccine required that is above 20 per cent of the COVAX facility will be funded by Nigeria at an average price of $4 per dose, given that the vaccines that we have now require 2 doses; that will be $8USD per person.
“This additional 20 per cent requirement in 2021 will have to be funded by the government of Nigeria.
“In 2022, we are trying to access a further 30 per cent of the vaccines. The Federal Government will have to, in addition to buying these vaccines, pay for the operational cost which is estimated to be about $1.6USD per person.
“We have to budget for this in 2021 and 2022. In 2021, the cost of vaccines on operations will be N156.7 billion; In 2022, it will be N220.9 billion,” Shuaib said.
Comments are closed.